HOW WOULD YOU experience optimal efficiency of your healing system? Very likely you would not be aware of it, because we tend to pay little attention to our health when it is good. You would recover speedily from illness and heal from injuries uneventfully. Ordinary stresses of everyday life might annoy you but would not derange your digestion or blood pressure. Sleep would be restful, sex enjoyable. Aging of your body would occur gradually, allowing you to moderate your activity appropriately and live out a normal life span without undue discomfort. You would not contract heart disease or cancer in middle age, be crippled by arthritis in later life, or lose your mind to premature senility.
This scenario is realistic and, I think, worth working for. Actually, the body wants to be healthy, because health represents efficient operation of all of its systems. A useful analogy is the engine of a car. When all components are doing what they should be doing in just the right way, efficiency is maximal, and operation is quiet, producing a “contented” purr that you rarely notice. An engine that calls attention to itself by sounding noisy and rough, knocking, and expelling black smoke is not efficient. Since efficiency is the ratio of work done to energy supplied, the sick engine is working harder to accomplish less. In a similar way it takes less energy to be a healthy person than to be a sick one, and just as a driver may not pay attention to the sound of a well-running engine, people may not be aware of the condition of good health until it breaks down. A program to boost the efficiency of the healing system will not necessarily produce immediately noticeable changes. It is a long-term investment in the future of the body. If you are seeking boundless energy, eternal happiness, an ageless body, or immortality, please look elsewhere. I will be writing only of real possibilities, consistent with the findings of medical science.
I propose to introduce this subject by asking you to consider obstacles to healing. If you understand the general kinds of problems that interfere with healing, you will know what kinds of preventive and corrective action you can take.
Healing requires energy. Energy is supplied by metabolism, the process of conversion of caloric energy in food to chemical energy that the body can use for its various functions. Malnourished and starving people are not good candidates for spontaneous healing. Even people who eat enough may not metabolize well for one reason or another; despite their caloric intake, they may suffer deficits of energy that impede healing.
Recall the story I told of the young woman who came to me complaining of fatigue and who had suffered a nonunion of a broken bone in the leg (see this page). Over the years, a number of (male) doctors had written her off as a complaining female, but to me the nonunion of a fractured bone and a persistent bruise on a big toe suggested a physical problem; and given her other symptoms and history, I suspected hypothyroidism even though her thyroid function tests were normal. The patient came from a distant city, and I found it very difficult to put her under the care of a physician who was willing to attempt thyroid hormone replacement. When she did start treatment, there was no change in her condition for quite some time. But finally, after ten weeks, her symptoms began to recede. Depression lifted, energy increased, and menstruation and digestion improved as metabolism slowly returned to normal. With these changes, her healing ability returned as well.
Hypothyroidism provides a clear illustration of the dependence of the healing system on the availability of energy from metabolism. More common reasons for insufficient metabolic energy are inadequate diets, impaired digestion, and improper breathing, all of which are within your control.
An adequate diet means one that provides not only enough calories but also all of the nutrients necessary for efficient metabolism without any excesses that promote disease. What constitutes a good diet is a matter of controversy, and much of the controversy is based on emotion rather than reason. In the next chapter I will summarize my views of leading-edge nutritional research to tell you how you can modify your diet in a manner that will increase your healing potential.
The term “impaired digestion” covers a wide range of ailments, from esophageal reflux to hemorrhoids, with a variety of stomach and intestinal complaints in between. But, until proved otherwise, most digestive problems should be assumed to be rooted in stress, because the mind has an unlimited capacity to interfere with normal operation of the gastrointestinal system by disturbing the balance of the autonomic (involuntary) nerves that regulate it. I will advise you how to neutralize stress and harmonize the functioning of the autonomic nervous system in order to avoid these problems.
When I say that improper breathing can lead to deficits of metabolic energy I have a picture in mind of an extreme example: a man I know in his late forties who suffers from emphysema and lifelong bronchitis and asthma. Despite a healthy appetite, he is no more than skin and bones, unable to store up reserves of metabolic energy simply because he cannot take in enough oxygen to burn the fuel he eats. Even in the absence of chronic lung disease, poor breathing can limit metabolism and the amount of energy available for healing. Poor breathing is correctable, and I will tell you how to change it.
Finally, I should mention that lack of energy can also result from immoderate expenditure of energy as a result of overwork, overexertion, lack of rest and sleep, and addictive use of stimulant drugs. Obviously, these problems are also correctable.
The healing system depends on the circulation of blood to bring energy and materials to a malfunctioning or injured area. You can see graphic examples of impaired healing due to poor circulation in persons with diabetes whose arteries are subject to premature and rapid progression of atherosclerosis as a result of their altered metabolism. Diabetics must be careful not to cut or nick their feet, since even a slight break in the skin may turn into a large ulcer that refuses to heal. The body just cannot supply enough nourishment, oxygen, and immune activity to the area because of insufficient circulation.
You can maintain your circulatory system in good working order by following a healthy diet, by not smoking, and by exercising, and I will give you more specific suggestions in the following chapters.
I have already mentioned that restricted breathing can reduce efficiency of the healing system through its dampening effect on metabolism, but I believe it can interfere in other ways as well. The operations of the brain and the nervous system depend on adequate exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide, as do those of the heart and the circulatory system and all organs of the body. Breathing may be the master function of the body, affecting all others. Restrictions in breathing can be the result of past traumas, both physical and emotional. Most of us have never received instruction about breathing and how to take advantage of it as a harmonizer of mind and body. For that reason I devote a portion of Chapter 13 to the subject.
Spontaneous healing is unlikely to occur if the body’s defenses are weak. Defense is the responsibility of the immune system, whose main job is to distinguish between self and not-self and take action against the latter. When immunity is crippled, as in AIDS, it is easy to see how much of a problem this creates for the healing system. When immunity is weakened in more subtle ways, impairment of healing may be less obvious.
There are three main categories of weakening influences on the immune system: (1) persistent or overwhelming infections; (2) toxic injury by certain forms of matter and energy; and (3) unhealthy mental states. You can protect yourself against all of these influences and, in addition, learn techniques to enhance immunity through adjustments in diet, exercise, and judicious use of vitamins, minerals, and herbs. You will find the information you need in this part of the book.
Toxic overload is one of the commonest reasons for diminished healing responses, but the subject is immensely complicated, emotionally charged, and highly political. We take toxins into our body with the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe, as well as in the form of drugs we use, whether we obtain them on medical prescription, buy them over the counter, or use them recreationally. I am concerned about toxic forms of energy as well as matter; electromagnetic pollution may be the most significant form of pollution human activity has produced in this century, all the more dangerous because it is invisible and insensible.
Whether energetic or material, toxins can damage DNA, which contains the information needed for spontaneous healing; disrupt the biological controls on which the healing system depends; weaken defenses; and promote the development of cancer and other diseases that already represent failures of healing by the time they make themselves known. Toxic overload may be a significant cause of allergy, autoimmune disease, and a variety of degenerative diseases (like Parkinson’s disease and ALS [amyotrophic lateral sclerosis]), whose causes now seem obscure.
The medical profession and the scientific research community have been remarkably slow to pay attention to this issue, which I consider to be one of the greatest threats to health and well-being in the world today. You have probably read stories in the press about clusters of leukemia cases in neighborhoods near power lines, about the increasing incidence of lymphoma among farmers who use agricultural chemicals, and about a worldwide increase in asthma and bronchitis as air pollution gets worse. Recently, I have followed news stories about a mysterious cluster of lupus cases in the border town of Nogales, Arizona, not far from my home near Tucson. Systemic lupus erythematosus is a potentially serious autoimmune disease not known to be communicable or to have environmental causes. Yet the incidence in Nogales is many times the national average. In 1994 reporters found that a ranching operation on the Mexican side of the border had been dumping pesticides into streams and burning manure contaminated with pesticides because it could not afford to build a proper disposal facility. No causal link is yet established, but I predict one will be.
If you want to increase the likelihood of spontaneous healing, it is imperative that you learn to guard against toxic injury. That means limiting exposure, protecting your body from the effects of pollution, and helping your body eliminate any toxins that do get in.
We assume that age is an obstacle to healing, that old people do not heal as readily as young people and have lowered immunity and resistance in general. Actually, there is little research to support those assumptions, but observation suggests that they are true. It is impressive to watch how quickly children heal from simple surgeries, like hernia repairs and appendectomies. This is not to say that old people are incapable of spontaneous healing, just that it may take more time. Moreover, methods may exist to protect the healing system from the effects of aging as well as to stimulate general resistance and vitality in the elderly.
Traditional Chinese medicine has identified a number of natural substances that act as tonics of this sort. As a group they appear to be nontoxic and effective. Some of them are now available in this country. I have reviewed the literature on these substances, have tried some of them myself, and with patients, and will give you suggestions for how to use them. You cannot stop the changes of time, but you can modify lifestyle and activity as you age, and it is good to know that help is available to maintain the efficiency of your healing system.
After reading Part One of this book and looking over the case histories presented throughout, you should have a firm conviction that the mind is a major influence on healing, for better or worse. Spontaneous healing can be triggered by mental events; it can also be frustrated by habitual ways of using the mind. I have already noted that the mind can depress the immune system and can unbalance the autonomic nervous system, leading to disturbances in digestion, circulation, and all other internal functions. You must know how to use the mind in the service of healing.
During my travels throughout the world I have met many healers who believe that the primary causes of health and illness are not physical but spiritual. They direct their attention toward an invisible world assumed to exist beyond the ordinary world of the senses. In this realm they search for reasons for illness and ways to cure it. Some of these people believe in karmic causes of illness (actions in the past or in past lives); others, in the ability of deceased ancestors to affect one’s life and health; others, in possession by spirits; and still others, in the possibility of psychic attack by malevolent shamans. It is impossible to talk to most scientists about an invisible world, since scientific materialism looks only for physical causes of physical events. I have learned not to try to discuss the possibility of nonphysical causation of physical events with most doctors, but I do discuss it with some patients and think about it a lot. Therefore, I would not consider this part of the book complete without some information about the spiritual dimension of healing and what you can do to make sure all is well on that level.
This completes my inventory of obstacles to spontaneous healing and identifies those subjects about which I need to give you information. Let’s begin with diet.