“It’s supposed to be a professional secret, but I’ll tell you anyway. We doctors do nothing. We only help and encourage the doctor within.”–Albert Schweitzer
At the party of “anything is possible,” there’s always the one cranky uncle who sits over in the corner. More times than not, the belief that stubbornly refuses to budge is the body as in “My mind has no control over my health, disease, aging, weight and any other fool thing my body decides to do.”
So today, I’ve got a packet of Reese’s Pieces and, like Elliott who was able to lure E.T. out of hiding, I’m hoping to lure out that curmudgeonly uncle to at least take a spin on the dance floor.
Reese Piece No. 1: Dr. Lissa Rankin’s new book, Mind Over Medicine. After years of being a physician, Dr. Rankin finally got fed up with the seven minutes she was allowed to see patients and the refusal by her colleagues to acknowledge the most powerful component of a person’s health: their beliefs and their thoughts. Initially, she was as hard-nosed and closed-minded as any doctor, but after investigating 50 years of peer-reviewed medical literature (New England Journal of Medicine and Journal of the American Medical Association, to name a few), she found ample evidence proving that beliefs play a powerful role in a person’s biochemistry and to ignore those findings was irresponsible, a betrayal of the Hippocratic Oath.
Reese’s Piece No. 2: The body is wired to heal itself. Our bodies are self-regulating, healing organisms, constantly striving for homeostasis. But instead of teaching our children this all-important fact, we teach them they need someone or something outside themselves to heal. The minute they get a fever or an ear ache, we rush them to that all-knowing doctor. This, at a very early age, cements in the fallacy that our bodies can’t heal themselves. Most of the thoughts in our default setting are planted before age 5.
Reese’s Piece No. 3: Placebos are often as effective as drugs. Patients have been able to grow hair, drop blood pressure, lower cholesterol, watch ulcers disappear and cure about every other symptom after being treated with nothing but sugar pills. It was their belief they were getting “medicine” that cured them, not the medicine itself.
Dr. Bruce Mosely, a surgeon and team physician for the Houston Rockets, performed arthroscopic knee surgery on two of ten middle-aged, former military guys. Three of the 10 had their knees rinsed (without the scraping) and the other five had no surgical procedure at all. It was an exercise in just pretend. After two years, all ten believed their surgery was a success. What Mosely discovered is that the bigger and more dramatic the patient perceives the intervention to be, the bigger the placebo effect.
Reese’s Piece No. 4: Our beliefs are the hinge on which our bodies function. Rankin tells the story of a guy with tumors the size of oranges. After begging his doctor to try an experimental new drug he’d read about, he was treated with the drug and his tumors disappeared. Several weeks later, reports hit the airwaves that this new drug was not as powerful as originally thought. The tumors returned. His doctor, by now savvy, gave his patient a placebo, telling him it was a stronger form of the drug and that the ineffective trials had been using too little of this powerful drug. Once again, the tumors from his stage 4 lymphoma began to disappear. Finally, the FDA pronounced the drug ineffective and pulled it off the market. The patient, who had been rapidly recovering, died within a week.
Okay, enough candy. I could go on and on about how 79 percent of medical students develop the symptoms they’re studying. Or about the woman with a split personality who has diabetes in one of her personalities and normal sugar levels in the other.
But I’m not a doctor and would never dream of prescribing anything.
But I do know this:
We should teach our children that their bodies have self-healing superpowers.
And we should quit hexing ourselves by looking for disease.
And we should remember that if chimpanzees can lower their blood pressure at will, something Harvard doc, Herbert Benson, discovered in his research, there’s probably not much we CAN’T do to heal ourselves.
Uncle, are you ready for that dance?
Pam Grout is the author of 17 books including E-Squared: 9 Do-it-Yourself Energy Experiments that Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality and the recently-released sequel, E-Cubed, 9 More Experiments that Prove Mirth, Magic and Merriment is your Full-time Gig.
25 Responses
Weel, today I really feel like I’m the old uncle… Hope I can dance. Bet I’m not ready yet or I would be eating the cherry cake I feel such a strong desire for…
And I did read dr. Reeve book, but… old paradigms still win sometimes..
Best post since I’ve been following you, Pam. So grateful:)
I’m 68 years old in earth terms. I,m getting rid of my “can’t do paradigms” to ” I can do anything I want paradigms”. I’m backing riding my touring bike that I parked last year because I convinced myself I was to old and I hit the gym 3 days a week now and my upper body looks like a muscle building dude,. And i agree these bodies are not who we are but we just use them while we are here. They were created in perfection and they will stay that way untill we are done using them if if that is our belief!
Feel the same way as Elisabetta, a little scared with some weird symptons, believing and meditating, but can’t get those what if thoughts to stay away, could use some advice for sure.
Judy, I’ve spent decades doing the “what if” thing, & bringing on panic attacks as a result. Of course, it’s a self-reinforcing problem, because stress increases scary physical symptoms.
One thing that’s really helped is doing a *daily* journal of symptoms. Then later I can go back and see that I had such-and-such scary symptom 6 months, a year, two or ten years ago and it turned out to be nothing.
Also try reading Claire Weekes’ “Hope and Help for Your Nerves” and “Peace from Nervous Suffering”, Denise F. Beckfield’s “Master Your Panic and Take Back Your Life”, and Shad Helmstetter’s “What to Say When You Talk to Yourself”.
Weekes’ and Beckfields’ books are particularly useful when I’ve worked myself into a panic over some surely deadly symptom, because I can go there & read that exact symptom & realize it’s simply stress-related.
Hope this helps!
So glad to run across your post today. Still recovering from post heart surgery stroke that left me unable to use my right side. Well, Pam, it’s been 4 months home on the 4th of July, and I’m going to celebrate walking again! I’m almost there, with chiropractor helping weekly, exercises I can do lying on my back, and many (daily) 30 mins. sessions on my recumbent bike. (Very expensive rehab was not an option), But my attitude has me recovering at what my doc calls, a miraculous rate. Determined to win this gauntlet. Your post have been a real positive element to my approach, very inspiring-especially this one. I’m not going to be the old uncle sittin’ on the sidelines of life! Trish, grateful @71 in earth time.
I’m sure you’re gonna be fine very soon. Good luck:)
Dear Trish…..Your wonderful determination to overcome your challenge is inspiring.
I know you will recover quickly and be even stronger and more wonderful than you already are. Bless you dear I’m thinking of you and sending healing Light. Love to you.
Right back to ya! Thanks! Trish
Thank you 1,000 times over!!
I SO agree with this, Pam! I had the opportunity to air this perspective just this week, when, upon being asked whether my sterilization surgery had removed the tubes or just clamped them, the person asking did that “Swamp Thing” oops look and replied, “Well, I’m just telling you what I’ve HEARD, but…” and proceeded to inform me, essentially, that I’d had the wrong kind. I told her I wasn’t worried about it. “Oh, ovarian cancer doesn’t run in your family?” she asked. “No,” I replied, “but it doesn’t matter anyway, because I’m not my family.” (And boy, did I then have to explain THAT little piece of obviousness!)
🙂
Great minds!
I have ordererred a book for you. You can read about it in the article below and here too: http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Over-Medicine-Scientific-Yourself-ebook/dp/B00BLSZJGA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434750200&sr=1-1&keywords=mind+over+medicine&pebp=1434750185523&perid=01M70HZZC9GJV1B44356 The article is full of American-isms at the start, but makes sense ferrther down. The book will be posted to your place and should terrn up some time after next week. Hopefully you will find some helpful ideas in it. Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2015 15:26:58 +0000 To: auzzienotes@hotmail.com
Sorry….I just sent you an email that was meant to go to someone else! Thanks for your article though about Mind over Medicine….pity more people don’t understand about this concept. From: auzzienotes@hotmail.com To: comment+ljivns4slwzcglsu8e-hgl@comment.wordpress.com Subject: RE: [New post] Quit hexing yourself by looking for disease Date: Sat, 20 Jun 2015 08:08:07 +1000
I have ordererred a book for you. You can read about it in the article below and here too: http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Over-Medicine-Scientific-Yourself-ebook/dp/B00BLSZJGA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1434750200&sr=1-1&keywords=mind+over+medicine&pebp=1434750185523&perid=01M70HZZC9GJV1B44356 The article is full of American-isms at the start, but makes sense ferrther down. The book will be posted to your place and should terrn up some time after next week. Hopefully you will find some helpful ideas in it. Date: Fri, 19 Jun 2015 15:26:58 +0000 To: auzzienotes@hotmail.com
Thanks Pam for writing this and all e-mail. Joany
Thanks Pam for these affirming words. After all, Hippocrates was quoted to have said, “Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease.” It seems we
require a continuous and repetitive “canceling out thought” from what we have been socialized to believe. Thanks so much:)
Pam,
Great post and so true. When I was younger I was told over and over and over again that I had my “mother’s stomach” ( which was always upset). So, if course, what do you suppose my stomach was? I think you know the answer. One day, in my 20’s, I just decided I wasn’t going to buy in to it any more and guess what? Yep, the symptoms went away. No treatment of any kind, just a decision.
Thanks for all that you do.
Dave
What a fabulous piece of writing Pam, I’m so inspired!
Bravo!
Rose from New Zealand
I love these wonderful reminders and insights. Thanks so much. I am inspired more and more with your writings.
Thanks
That is one powerful read, very inspiring indeed!
To actually realize what we are truly capable of doing just by altering our belief system opens a door to so many solutions. A great reminder of how everything starts within to expand without into the objective world.
Thank you for sharing!
Loved that! Thank you!
I so just love you, Pam Grout! You ROCK! Patient, heal THYSELF…One positive thought at a time! xo Ham
Hamilton Brower “Delivering Plant-Based Nutrition Where It Matters Most” Email: hambrower@aol.com Cell #: (917) 756-5185 http://www.hamiltonbrower.juiceplus.com and http://www.hamiltonbrower.towergarden.com
I remember listening to a Deepak Chopra tape years ago in which he cited a university study raising rabbits on high cholesterol diets. Then they dissected the rabbits to study the progress of heart disease.
One group didn’t have the disease, so they back-tracked and discovered the person put in charge of that particular lot had raised them like pets instead of lab animals.
The conclusion was your body can make different metabolic “choices” based on your state of mind.
Emotions definitely affect the body’s chemistry, and many decades ago Edgar Cayce had also warned people not to eat when angry or upset.
Another great post, Pam. So true. Personally, I love and appreciate my life and my body more and more, and find I feel way better now, at 63, than I did in my youth.
Incidentally – another bit of fun from the Universe – this week I’ve just listened on Audible to a great novel, ‘I’ll Give You the Sun’ by Jandy Nelson. Reese’s Pieces were mentioned in the book, and, being a Brit, I’d never heard of them. So there they today are in your post! So thank you for both the post and the info!
Bravo bravo 100% true story 😉