Great discoveries have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.
—Albert Einstein, a German-born physicist, founder of the theory of relativity (1879–1955)
There is no question that when we’re happy, we feel very good. But were you aware that nearly five decades of research in the field of psychoneuroimmunology (PNI) has documented the fact that happiness is healthy?
It’s been repeatedly shown that our thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and emotions can either weaken or strengthen the body’s immune system, making us either more vulnerable or more resistant to disease and physical dysfunction (including the chronic pain conditions presented in Part II). The belief that you’ll have to live with chronic pain for the rest of your life is depressing. Reinforcing this belief, the same negative thought, “I’ll never get better,” one that you may have been repeating to yourself multiple times a day for many months or years, depresses immune function.
What a startling scientific revelation! But for most of us, it’s no big surprise. I’m quite sure many of you have already experienced this mind-body connection, having developed a cold on the heels of a particularly stressful event or time in your life. This might also have been the case when you experienced your first acute flare-up of what has now become a chronic condition, such as rheumatoid arthritis or fibromyalgia.
Yet in spite of its commonsense logic, this paradigm-shifting scientific discovery, with its ever-expanding body of evidence accelerating the evolution of the art and science of healing, has made barely a dent in the fortress of contemporary medical practice. Why? Greed and self-interest have seized control of the business of health care.
In 2015, America spent $3.2 trillion on health care, a number so large it is difficult to grasp its scale. It computes to approximately $10,000 for every one of our 320 million citizens, far exceeding any other country in the world. You might think that with such a huge expenditure we would have a very healthy population. Yet the results of a comprehensive 2015 Global Burden of Disease study show that the U.S. ranks 28 out of 188 total nations, with Iceland and Sweden ranked as the healthiest countries in the world. Nearly 86 percent of our astronomical health care expenditures ($2.7 trillion) are spent on caring for the 133 million people (45 percent of the population) suffering with at least one chronic condition, most of which are preventable.
Is it any wonder that there’s been no cure for many of our most common and expensive ailments, such as cancer or heart disease, or that many effective natural remedies and cures (especially for cancer) have been outlawed by the FDA or the DEA? In many cases the practitioners who discover and promote these innovative treatments are put out of business (without any legal recourse) by these same governmental agencies.
The pharmaceutical industry is currently the second most profitable ($70 billion annually) on the planet (not far behind oil and gas), and combined with the medical and insurance industries, health care has been transformed into a thriving disease-care business with almost nothing to do with maintaining or enhancing health, or preventing disease. The business of caring has become a lot more about business with a lot less caring.
• • •
Conventional, allopathic, Western or “modern” medicine is based on the seventeenth-century theories of Descartes and Isaac Newton. Regarded as the founder of modern medicine, Descartes saw the human being as a machine with two separate parts—body (soma) and mind (psyche). Newtonian physics taught that we live in a material universe—all that exists is matter (invisible energy is ignored). In addition to materialism, the philosophical pillars of this healing art and science are composed of reductionism (a focus on the smallest part to understand the function and dysfunction of the whole organism) and determinism (if you understand how the parts work, you can accurately predict how the body will react to a drug or therapeutic modality).
For the past four hundred years this approach has evolved into our current high-tech, low-touch health care system. Conventional medicine continues to make great progress in, and is extremely effective for, treating acute and life-threatening illness, injuries, and allergic reactions, and for quickly (and temporarily) relieving discomfort (but not without risk). At times the results can be almost miraculous. For this reason, American medicine is emulated around the world. Yet a fact that is not widely recognized is that it consistently fails to cure and in most cases, prevent, a myriad of common chronic conditions, including chronic pain. When it comes to chronic disease, be it arthritis, asthma, diabetes, or high blood pressure, the stated goal of modern medicine is management, not cure!
This is why medical marijuana poses such a financial threat to the enormous profits of the pharmaceutical industry. Consider the current sales figures from opioids, sleep medications, benzodiazepines (antianxiety medications), anti-inflammatories, muscle relaxants, and anticonvulsants. Is anyone surprised that in August 2016 the FDA decided to maintain the classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug, and just four months later the DEA recommended that CBD (a substance that has been repeatedly shown to do no harm) be placed in the same category, on equal footing with heroin and cocaine?
Modern medicine not only is ineffective at times and expensive, but can be harmful! A study published in the July 2000 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) ranked conventional state-of-the-art medicine as the third leading cause of death in the U.S. (behind heart disease and cancer). The researchers used conservative estimates in calculating their data.
DEATHS PER YEAR
12,000—unnecessary surgery
7,000—medication errors in hospitals
20,000—other errors in hospitals
80,000—infections in hospitals
106,000—non-error negative effects of appropriately prescribed drugs
Total = 225,000 deaths per year from iatrogenic causes (i.e., caused by medical treatment)!
A year later, a group of physicians and researchers (Gary Null, PhD; Carolyn Dean MD, ND; Martin Feldman, MD; Debora Rasio, MD; and Dorothy Smith, PhD) decided to more closely scrutinize the data from the 2000 JAMA study and obtain more exact figures. Their research paper, entitled “Death by Medicine,” appeared in Life Extension magazine in March 2004. From their data they concluded that conventional medicine is the leading cause of death in the U.S. Not surprisingly, this study was never published in a medical journal.
Their findings:
• The total number of deaths caused by conventional medicine is 783,936 per year.
• American medicine is the leading cause of death and injury in the U.S.
• By contrast, the number of deaths attributable to heart disease in 2001 was 699,697, while the number of deaths attributable to cancer was 553,251.
Table 16.1: Estimated Annual Mortality and Economic Cost of Medical Intervention |
||
Condition |
Deaths |
Cost |
Adverse Drug Reactions |
106,000 |
$12 billion |
Medical error |
98,000 |
$2 billion |
Bedsores |
115,000 |
$55 billion |
Infection |
88,000 |
$5 billion |
Malnutrition |
108,800 |
————— |
Outpatients |
199,000 |
$77 billion |
Unnecessary Procedures |
37,136 |
$122 billion |
Surgery-Related |
32,000 |
$9 billion |
Total |
783,936 |
$282 billion |
From these shocking statistics, it seems obvious that our current health care system is badly broken and desperately in need of change.
Conversely, integrative holistic medicine, the new modern medicine, is founded on quantum physics and the work of Albert Einstein. Regarded as the most influential physicist of the twentieth century, Einstein’s theory of relativity (all motion must be defined relative to a frame of reference, and therefore space and time are relative, rather than absolute, concepts) was largely responsible for the development of atomic energy.
Arguably, Einstein’s most significant contribution was his belief that we live in an energy universe, and that underneath all matter, molecules, and atoms is invisible energy. This energy is such a powerful force that he asserts, “The field [i.e., the environment filled with intermingling energies] is the sole governing agency of the particle [matter].”
The field includes everything from the core of your being to the outer reaches of the universe. It includes your thoughts and feelings, your diet and air quality, your relationships and faith in a higher power, as well as the energies radiating from the sun and the other planets in our solar system. All of these energies strongly affect your physical body, and how you are affected by a specific drug or herb. This helps to explain why patients with mild to moderate depression fare no better (sometimes worse) on antidepressants than they do with a placebo (a substance with no intrinsic therapeutic properties). Their belief that the prescription medication would help them feel better created a positive result.
Possibly the most compelling research regarding energy medicine was performed by C. W. F. McClare, a British physicist at the University of London, who compared the effect of both energy signals (e.g., thoughts, emotions, prayer, hands-on healing) and physical signals (e.g., drugs, hormones) on cells. He discovered that energy signals were one hundred times more efficient than physical signals!
Einstein’s quantum physics and his theory of an energy universe have profound implications for the practice of medicine, but unfortunately they have not yet changed the way most doctors diagnose and treat their patients.
• • •
Doctors who serve as teachers as well as healers, and provide in-depth self-care education, do not generate sufficient revenue to satisfy the gluttonous financial appetite of the medical/pharmaceutical industry. Cure and prevention are not profitable. But from my forty-five years as a family physician, I can categorically state that self-care is a far more effective, economical, and empowering approach for treating chronic pain and disease than our current health care system.
So miraculous is the mind-body connection that researchers in the field of psychoneuroimmunology have concluded that the immune system is in fact a circulating nervous system mediated by neurotransmitters (i.e., substances that transmit nerve impulses across a synapse). I’ve previously mentioned that THC promotes the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine. This substance has been defined as the kick-ass chemical in your brain that makes you feel and do happy things . . . whatever they may be. Very simply, dopamine creates happiness.
Knowledge is power. In Part III, using cannabis as a facilitator in a potentially life-changing holistic healing process, I am providing you with several safe and practical options for gaining greater self-knowledge, which equates with self-power.
After engaging in these practices on a consistent basis for at least three months, you will have much less pain; develop a greater appreciation for the intimate connection between your body, mind, and soul; heighten awareness of your limiting and creative thoughts as well as your painful and joyful emotions; and learn to more consciously strengthen your immune function.
You will become much better acquainted with your true self, the heart of you that you may have kept hidden through most of adolescence and may have had only a few brief glimpses during your entire adult life. With a clear intention, you will be creating the life of your dreams, along with a better understanding of who you are, why you’re here, where your heart is guiding you, and how to experience a depth of happiness you’ve never known. In short, you will become more fully alive!