Extraordinary example of the mind's influence on well-being

A friend writes: "If you ever needed an example of the mind's influence on disease, please see the figure at the bottom of page 3 here: Impact of exposure to war stress on exacerbations of MS. Wow."

The article is about relapses of multiple sclerosis during the Hamas war in Israel in 2006. The caption reads "Number of relapses per month. Eighteen relapses occurred during the 33 days of the war compared with one to six relapses in comparable time periods over the 12 months preceding the war. There was no increase in relapse rates during the 3 months that followed the war compared with the same period of the previous year."

Brings to mind a couple of thoughts:

1. It strongly reminds me that during my own illness, I put a high priority on the power of my state of mind. At all times, even when all the information was not encouraging, instead of pondering all that for no benefit, I asked myself (and often said in my online journal), "What could be said that would make a difference?"
               Note: as those who read my journal know, I wasn't in denial – I'm talking about where I chose to focus my consciousness.
   
   
2. It reminds me, in a new way, of the sixties poster that said "War is bad for children and other living things."

Empowerment applies to every aspect of your health

The way we talk about empowerment, it sometimes sounds like it's all about participation between doctor and patient. There's more to it.

Consider what Norman Cousins wrote in Anatomy of an Illness thirty years ago:



Here's a live specimen of what he meant, on the hoof: on my ACOR kidney cancer listserv, a woman who calls herself Goodsister wrote this Friday, in a discussion of how we cancer patients view our situations:

I find myself wanting to know more about the specifics of the correlations, as Dave said, and yet unsure I want to know, in case my own situation might point to a high likelihood of recurrence.

Part of me thinks like this: The cancer was a mistake my body made. Oops - my immune system got confused; derailed by the stress and misery of life events, it failed to recognize cancer growing in my kidney. When the tumor had grown quite large, my body then threw me a clue: Here's some blood in the urine for you. And it did so BEFORE I had metastasis - visible metastasis, that is.

So after this first clean scan a week or two ago, I am just going along with some kind, encouraging thoughts for my immune system. "Stay awake, little immune cells, and patrol the perimeters. Anything that starts acting weird, jump on it. Here's some nice Japanese green tea, to saturate my blood with the anticancer attitude. Here's some flax seed and PSK mushrooms."

My current operative POV is the same as the slave in Gladiator, discussing the inevitability of death: "Not yet."

Isn't that terrific? Isn't that a whole different point of view compared to the common "woe is me"?

Good job, Goodsister!

What is the nature of wellness?

Today I was reflecting with wife Ginny about the immune system. My cancer treatment last year involved getting very large boosts to my immune system, and a number of things about my body have responded, beyond the cancer’s retreat. When I combine that with the much-studied interaction between the mind and the immune system, I saw this pattern: “The immune system’s way of being is ‘I am, and I have a right to be,’ and it fights anything that says ‘No you’re not’ or “No you don’t.’”

So the question arises, what has the brain be on one side or the other of that tug of war?

I assert that one factor – a big one – can be the presence of an affirming community that says “Yes you are.” My own blog community during my 2007 cancer experience was a big boost to my sense that I matter to people, and I have no doubt that boosted my sense that I deserved to survive.

About the mind-body connection, years ago I read that in a very real sense, the immune system is a sixth sense, bringing information to the brain about what’s going on in the “corners of the empire” and carrying instructions back. Googling leads to some similar items here (“the nervous and immune systems use a common chemical language for intra and inter-system communication”) and here (“the immune system [serves] as the sixth sense that notifies the nervous system of the presence of entities, such as viruses and bacteria, that are imperceptible to the classic senses”).

The New York Times “Well” blog has a conversation with Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food.I am no nutritionist but this makes sense to me:

Americans are a people so obsessed with nutrition yet whose dietary health is so poor. That strikes me as a paradox. We worry more about nutritional health, and we see food in terms of health. Yet we’re the world champs in terms of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and the cancers linked to diet. I think it’s odd. It suggests that worrying about your dietary health is not necessarily good for your dietary health.
…
I think health should be a byproduct of eating well, for reasons that have nothing to do with health, such as cooking meals, eating together and eating real food. You’re going to be healthy, but that’s not the goal. The goal should just be eating well for pleasure, for community, and all the other reasons people eat. What I’m trying to do is to bring a man-from-Mars view to the American way of thinking about food. This is so second nature to us — food is either advancing your health or ruining your health. That’s a very limited way to think about food, and it’s a very limited way to think about health. The health of our bodies is tied to the health of the community and the health of the earth. Health is indivisible.

My favorite brain author is Robert Ornstein. I heard him speak once, and he too puzzled about all the talk about not ingesting fats, when (at that time) there was no evidence at all that changing your intake made any difference in what showed up in your blood. Rather, he said, "What about the salutary effects of enjoying a great meal?" Shortly after, he published Healthy Pleasures. (If this concept interests you, check other mind/health books he's co-authored.)

I personally have a strong sense that our beings - our physical beings and our metaphysical ones, be they "souls" or something else - do resonate with each other, and there's something about the very nature of being well that's worth looking at. And it includes having a strong, supportive community.

More about this in future posts, I expect. For now, think about it, and if you have personal experiences to share, post a comment (at the link below).