My father is a brilliant doctor with an encyclopedic memory of thousands of illnesses and syndromes. Despite this, he would never in a million years consider alternative treatments or the affects of the mind – body connection for healing. I forgive him this because he is eighty-nine years old. I’m not sure whether or not he will admit it, but I think that even he believes we are starting a 5,000 year old “new” medical revolution.

What is “Spontaneous Remission” and how can it help you?

In 1993, the Institute of Noetic Sciences published Spontaneous Remission: An Annotated Bibliography by Caryle Hirshberg and Brendan O’Regan. They defined spontaneous remission as “the disappearance, complete or incomplete, of a disease or cancer without medical treatment…” They assembled the largest database of spontaneous remission in the world. It contained over 3,500 cases.

What made these patients different?

In her book, Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, Kelly Turner, PhD set out to answer this question. She couldn’t believe that these patients didn’t have something in common that enabled them to heal themselves. She interviewed patients and their healers to find clues about similarities they shared. So, if you are ready to take a leap of faith, I will explain to you how she found over and over again that spontaneous remissions were not so spontaneous after all.

Grandma was right when she said you are what you eat!

Most of the patients that Dr. Turner interviewed had changed their diet to fight off their breast cancer. It is the most powerful, concrete and measurable thing that you can do for yourself that will promote self healing. This first step is easy and only a little painful. Johns Hopkins, one of the preeminant cancer centers in the world, has done research that has shown that if you begin eating a diet of organic whole vegetables, fruits, grains, and beans, you will heal better than if you eat Fruity Pebbles and Oreos. So far, so good.

The next recommendation is to eliminate meat, sugar, dairy, and refined grains, especially white flour, from your diet. This takes will power, especially if your stomach is upset and a bowl of ice cream is calling out to you. This is where inner strength comes in. A healthy diet lets your body feed your immune system and fight cancer cells. An unhealthy diet causes your immune system to spend a lot of it’s resources cleaning up the toxins caused by the unhealthy food. You should try to eat so your food maximizes its impact on your cancer cells. I will write more about different healthy diet options in an upcoming blog.

Spirituality. Really? I didn’t even have the energy to shower today.

Women who had spontaneous recovery consistently described themselves as being grounded by spirituality. Actually, this should come as no a surprise to the medical community. Research has shown over and over again that patients who believed in a higher power lived longer and healthier lives. According to Dr. Turner, one study showed that “engaging in a spiritual community can extend your life by up to 14 years.”

I don’t know how to define spirituality, nor do I need to know how or why it works. I liken it to the feeling of peace and contentment that runners feel when they refer to a “runner’s high.” In this case, we can measure this response as an increase in endorphins. In much the same way, prayer or meditation may activate something in your brain that heightens your body’s self-repair mechanisms.

Happiness, Joy, Love, Peace and Contentment

My mother died of cancer when she was sixty four. Throughout her life, she struggled with feeling of being “less than.” Often, she felt lonely because she didn’t feel that she had any friends. When she was diagnosed, her prognosis was bleak. She had a 10% chance of living for two years. When the news of her illness started to spread in our community, she was inundated with cards and phone calls from people she didn’t even think cared about her. While it didn’t cure my mom, it unquestionably changed the quality of her life.

According to Dr. Turner, studies show that happy people live up to ten years longer than unhappy people. Optimists have a 77% lower risk of heart disease when compared to pessimists. A coincidence? I don’t think so. Neuropsychologists who look at MRIs of the brain can actually see that positive, loving thoughts generate responses in the brain that are believed to promote healing in the body by increasing oxytocin, dopamine, nitric oxide, and endorphins. This activates the body’s natural cancer-fighting abilities.