I have another friend who was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma about four years ago. He endured chemo treatments and was relatively okay for a year or so. But within the past year, he's suffered numerous episodes of uncontrollable bleeding, both external and internal. He was just recently diagnosed with ameloidosis and has been advised that a bone marrow transplant is the best course. It's pretty scary, and we, his friends, who would like him to at least read about alternatives, can't get him to do so. I guess when a person has no interest in it, is more accustomed to disbelief of herbal remedies, and believes that Western-trained doctors know the best, you can't make him change in an instant or even a month.
I would say that my journey away from traditional Western medicine began about four years ago. I had an upper jaw ache that found me chewing on the opposite side of my mouth for days at a time. I tend not to go to doctors for something that is of the dull, achy pain type. Finally, some six months later, I was in for a physical at the local health center and mentioned it and was given the de rigeur decongestant and antibiotic for a sinus infection. It abated and then came back. Went to see my dentist to make sure it wasn't tooth-related and got the same thing. I had been making regular visits to a chiropractor for work on my lower back and finally mentioned this sinus pain. He pulled a bottle of Echinacea off the shelf and suggested I take it. In less than a week, the pain was gone, and I slowly began to learn what a great thing herbal medicine is.
A year ago I picked up a book on a friend's table and started skimming it. Within a week I had bought my own copy of Dr. Christiane Northrup's Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom (Bantam Books, 1994) and started reading it like a novel. It is absolutely the best book out there on women's health. I bought a copy for my 22-year-old daughter, who has now bought copies for several of her friends. The mother of one of those friends works at the local health clinic and hadn't read it until she picked up her daughter's copy. And now she also thinks it an excellent resource for every woman, of any age. (So, circuitously, I have infiltrated a traditional doctor's office, one that would rather prescribe muscle relaxants and pain relievers rather than visits to a chiropractor for a painful back.)
Dr. Northrup believes in holistic medicine, in mind-body connections leading to illness, and in a person's necessity to pursue the healing that feels like the right and comfortable thing for that person. What becomes clear is that a person has to be ready to explore the emotional and mental content of an illness before work of that kind will make any sense or create any changes. One has to be ready to believe in the efficacy of a course of treatment, also. Which brings to mind the placebo effect.
My original thoughts for this month's letter were the result of reading Dr. Andrew Weil's Spontaneous Healing (Fawcett Columbine, 1995) a week ago. He states that what is truly miraculous about our bodies is its capacity to heal itself. Take a skin cut. He describes minutely the cellular growth that occurs in regenerating new tissue to close the cut, and points out that it does not depend upon our doing anything, consciously. (Did you know that you can remove 80% of your liver and as long as the remaining 20% is healthy, it will regenerate totally?) Our cells are constantly replacing themselves, without our willing it, without medical intervention.
Because placebo effects are not studied for themselves, we only know about them because every experiment using drugs always gives rise to a placebo effect. Dr. Weil's point is that this effect shows that the mind, just by what it believes, can activate healing, can create wellness. He also says that what a physician believes can also have great effect on the health of a patient undergoing treatment.
Dr. Weil collects testimonials by the hundreds, in which people attribute their healing to just about every sort of therapy of the non-traditional, non-Western medicine kind. What he concludes is this:
In its [collection of testimonials] totality and abundance it makes one powerful point. People can get better. More than that, they can get better from all sorts of conditions of disease, even very severe ones of long duration....Testimonials are important pieces of evidence. They are not necessarily testimony to the power or value of particular healers and products. Rather, they are testimony to the human capacity for healing. The evidence is incontrovertible that the body is capable of healing itself. By ignoring that, many doctors cut themselves off from a tremendous source of optimism about health and healing. [Emphasis his.]That brings me back to my friend who is going the straight medical-surgical route. Now, both Drs. Northrup and Weil clearly believe that that route is certainly to be followed in situations of emergency and catastrophic need, but once the hemorrhage is stopped, the bone is splinted, the wound sewn, that other avenues can be looked at to aid in the healing.
Right now, it looks like what my friend's circle of friends can do for him is send healing thoughts and prayers (and send ourselves), as often as possible through whatever avenue of entreaty we hold dear. And find people who've been through what he's going through and listen to what helped them and give that knowledge to him. Examples do seem to be the best teachers.
Peace and good health to all,
Cherie Staples