Superhealing: Engaging Your Mind, Body, and Spirit to Create Optimal Health and Well-Being (ARC) (5 page)

There must be another way.
With that concern in my mind, in that very moment I knew I could not become the cancer specialist I had wanted to be up till then. That nurse’s simple statement instantaneously eradi-cated every aspiration I had to become an oncologist, in the process permanently altering my professional career and direction.

In the midst of this deep disappointment—as I was wondering,

Isn’t there a better way? Why do we have to give these babies chemicals
that eat through cloth? Isn’t there something that can help the body to
heal?—
I also could hear my spirit whisper,
There
is
another way
. My journey to discover the power of superhealing began.

A few months later, still a medical intern, I’d been up all night

in the intensive care nursery caring for several very sick premature babies who had needed emergency deliveries. While on rounds with

the attending physician, I was desperately trying to stay awake, or at least not fall asleep standing up (which I’d once thought was impossible but now knew was not). The attending doctor began an

impromptu lecture on a research finding that the most significant

factor related to infant mortality rates was not the availability of intensive care nurseries to take care of premature babies but whether measures had been taken to improve maternal nutrition and health

during pregnancy. Preventive strategies saved lives, and what we

were doing was much less important.

Introduction

13

I was flabbergasted. Exhaustion fueled my thoughts.
If this is for
naught, then what am I doing? Why am I kil ing myself, taking care of
these babies, working thirty-six hours straight every third night, only to
discover that it doesn’t lower the infant mortality rate?

Now I understand the gift of that devastating information. It was

another fertile seed planted in my mind of the desire to do more,

which I would nurture over the years. As I did, it began leading me to find alternatives to the limited approach of our medical system.

In the case of premature babies, for instance, scientists have discovered that putting the baby on the chest of the mother, skin to skin, and allowing them to bond, instead of putting the baby in an incubator, helps the baby to thrive. Premature babies who are exposed

to the mother’s heartbeat and warmth have breathing that is better regulated, have fewer infections, gain weight more rapidly, and are discharged earlier.25

Almost thirty years ago, the Government Accountability Office

(then still called the General Accounting Office)[AU: Add this if that was the case then.] estimated that 70 percent of the procedures used by doctors were ineffective. Coronary artery bypass surgery, for instance, has been used to treat heart disease (the leading cause of death in the United States) since the 1970s. A 1982 study conservatively estimated that at least one-seventh of all such surgeries could have actual y been postponed or avoided altogether, which means that 25,000 operations per year back then were unnecessary.26 Life was clearly prolonged by the procedure in only 11 percent of all cases. More recent research has determined that the vast majority of these surgeries, compared to other medical treatments, provided no benefit.27

It’s my opinion that the situation hasn’t changed since then. Today, in the United States, coronary artery bypass surgery is performed

twice as often as it is in Canada and Australia and four times as often 14

Introduction

as it is in western Europe, despite similar population profiles.28 This means that American doctors are more apt to recommend this particular treatment, whereas their counterparts in other nations are less inclined to do so—and with good reason: recent studies continue to find no significant difference in the outcomes from surgery and other medical treatments in the vast majority of patients with heart disease.

Lifestyle modification is a better way. Dean Ornish, a holistic

physician and writer, demonstrated a highly effective approach to

reversing coronary heart disease based on more than two decades of peer-reviewed research funded by the National Institutes of Health and several foundations. It consists of a major nutritional component to lower cholesterol, along with exercise, group support, and stress reduction.29 Many studies of chronic diseases show similar

long-term benefits for patients than surgery.

Several studies have highlighted the various dangers of modern

medicine. These include the approval of unsafe drugs, the hazards

of diagnostic technologies, the high incidence of unnecessary pro-

cedures, and the inhumane and frequently stressful way patients

are treated. These dangers were compiled and reported in an article called “Death by Medicine.”30 Certain extreme treatments, such as

chemotherapy or a stay in a hospital’s intensive care unit, can actual-ly cause post-traumatic stress disorder in those who undergo them.

What makes the situation so outrageous is that the healthcare in-

dustry has traditional y encouraged the American public to be pas-

sive consumers—to wait for developing technologies and new drugs

rather than to accept the role they play in the expression of their own health and the origin of disease. The research clearly indicates that when consumers take responsibility for their health and actively participate in lifestyle modifications and decision making, they usual y don’t get as sick in the first place, and when they do get sick, they heal

Introduction

15

faster. Throughout this book, I will present evidence of this to you.

The truth is that modern medicine has made minimal progress

with its purely physiological approach to healing, except in the treatment of infectious diseases and of acute and traumatic illnesses.

In fact, many see that technology has played a significant role in disrupting the cornerstone of the practice of medicine: the doctor-patient relationship. There is an increasing awareness that our medical system—contrary to its mandate—is actual y the leading cause

of death and injury in the United States. Each year, 7.5 million unnecessary medical and surgical procedures are performed.31 The

number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization every year is 8.9 million.32 The total number of iatrogenic deaths (those inadvertently caused by a physician, by surgery or other treatment, or by a diagnostic procedure) is calculated at close to 784,000 a year.33

The number of people having adverse drug reactions to prescribed

medicine while in the hospital is 2.2 million a year.34 And this doesn’t even consider the adverse reactions that take place outside hospitals, which aren’t official y recorded.

In addition to the alarming rates of drug interactions, medical accidents, and harm caused by a technological approach to patients

that appears to have run amuck. Ironical y and tragical y, despite all of our culture’s prescription-drug taking and technology, diseases are not being cured. In 2009, the annual heart disease death rate was 599,413, and the annual cancer death rate was 567,628.36 In addition, because there are currently more than 78 million baby boom-

ers in America, we have a large aging population and are therefore seeing an increase in dementia from Alzheimer’s disease and other

conditions.38 Around two-thirds of seniors (age sixty-five and older) in the United States have at least one chronic disease and regularly see seven physicians.40

16

Introduction

Our healthcare system is disease oriented and does not adequate-

ly treat chronic diseases because of its primary focus on the physical aspects of those diseases to the exclusion of all other considerations.

With rare exceptions, doctors typical y omit and ignore any consideration of the psychological, emotional, environmental, and spiritual factors at play in the development of disease.

Was it always this way, or did physicians simply change their

minds?

REMEMBERING WHAT

ONCE WAS COMMON SENSE

Some of our predecessors understood the truth about the unity of

mind, body, and spirit. In 1909, Sir William Osler, long considered the father of modern medicine, stated, “The care of tuberculosis depends more on what the patient has in his head than what he has in his chest.”41 It took almost eighty more years for other scientists to catch up with his groundbreaking observation. During the last fifty years, but in particular since the early 1980s, medical researchers across the globe have expanded the horizons of medical research by exploring healing vistas and theories beyond the current approach of modern medicine.

The findings of thousands of groundbreaking studies now confirm

what the ancient healers knew: your body, mind, and spirit are one.

Since the last half of the twentieth century, scientists have been shattering the ideas that for centuries served as the foundation of Western science. In exploring how mind, spirit, and emotion are connected to the body, they learned that these aspects of our being form an intelligent integrated system that functions in a dynamic state of harmony. Our thoughts, feelings (defined as physical sensations),

emotions (defined as physical sensations that arise with mental interpretation), beliefs, judgments, and expectations are physiological

Introduction

17

expressions of awareness and profoundly influence how we perceive, respond, and experience the world.

Recent scientific studies have made breakthroughs in understand-

ing exactly how certain chemicals form a remarkable interactive

bridge between the mind and the body. Pioneering research from

a range of disciplines—including psychoneuroimmunology ( ),

psychophysiology, neurotheology ( ), epigenetics, and biology[AU:

Please provide brief definitions for the two terms I’ve place parenthe-ses after.]—has demonstrated how our responses to our experiences

shape our internal chemistry by triggering and regulating neuropeptides (amino acid combinations that affect the nervous system)[AU: OK?] and their receptors.42 These discoveries are revolutionary, and I believe they will be better understood and appreciated in the coming years. I will offer details about these studies in subsequent chapters so you can begin to understand their exciting implications in ful .

By confirming the biochemical basis of emotions, these types of

studies can empower you to unleash the incredible healing power

of your thoughts. You can learn to recognize both how the mind

expresses itself through the body and how the body expresses itself through the mind. When you respond to those expressions at the

same time, you can initiate your superhealing capacity.

The truth is that the separation of mind, body, and spirit is an

artificial, arbitrary designation.

THE ESSENCE OF THE

SUPERHEALING APPROACH

Holism
,
wholeness
,
healing
, and
holiness
are all derived from the same root in Old English:
haelen
, to “make whole.” Superhealing is an integrative healing approach to transforming and transcending

the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual limitations that 18

Introduction

have been imposed on us throughout our lives. These factors lead to imbalance and chronic disease if they’re not addressed in a timely manner. Once we’ve transcended these limitations, we all have the

inborn capacity to superheal our lives.

Because mind and body are inseparable, the vast majority of il -

nesses, if not al , carry significant psychosomatic components; that is, emotions have contributed to their development and progression.

I believe that every disease has an underlying emotional, mental, or spiritual dimension that either directly or indirectly affects its course.

Yet diseases don’t have to be viewed in a negative, despairing light.

Rather than being considered punishments, they can be considered

friends, instructors, and blessings—precious gifts, even—because

they can lead to discovery, unimaginable joy, and triumph.

In this book, my goal is to help you recognize that all elements of creation are inextricably linked to the greater whole, which is greater than the sum of its parts. The human spirit plays a role in guiding the forces and laws of the universe. One element of superhealing is a sacred regard for all life. Although it is uncommon for medical doctors such as myself to say so—perhaps from a fear of being perceived as nonscientific—superhealing is a by-product of reverence. This approach is founded in the view that love is the essential underlying nature of creation and ultimately the source of all healing.

Love is the essence of your spirit. It is the light that embellishes our being with life. Love is the most important force in the universe.

It can lift us from disease, isolation, and rejection to superhealing, awareness, connection, and joy. Love is liberating and transformative. It has the power to release us from the chains that hold us captive to a life of inconsistency, fragmentation, despair, pain, and disease. Quite simply, there are no limitations to love.

We all need love, regardless of who we are or of our condition,

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19

position, or status. Love makes our world go around. As the sage

Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi wrote, “Love is the most powerful force

in the world, yet it is the humblest imaginable.”43 We are love. Love is the essence of mind, body, and spirit. Superhealing is a by-product of acknowledging the spiritual aspect of being, the divine essence of us, or the force of love, which manifests and guides our health and healing. It is love that fuels the body’s capacity to heal and regenerate itself physical y, emotional y, and spiritual y.

You were created in the image and likeness of love. The essence