Article: Mind-Body Healing
Mind-Body Healing
by: Dr. Janet Starr Hull, Ph.D., CN
http://www.sweetpoison.com/newsletter/
Can emotions affect your health? You bet. Can your state
of health affect your emotions? Absolutely.
In the past, nutritionists were known as the wise men. They
knew how to heal the body and soul. Many cultures refer to
natural healers as prophets and shamans. Natural healers
have been identified throughout centuries as the spiritual
leaders, the enlightened ones, and seers. They were the
Merlins, the Albert Einsteins, and the Medicine men.
The concept of disease has changed over time. Early man
tended to view disease as divine intervention. Modern
knowledge taught human beings to accept disease as a
natural process. Today, disease is epidemic and understood
and manipulated at the cellular level.
The World Health Organization reports: "Until recently the
health professions have largely followed a medical model
which seeks to treat patients by focusing on medicines and
surgery only, and gives less importance to beliefs and to faith
in healing, in the physician and in the doctor-patient
relationship. This view is no longer satisfactory. Patients
have begun to realize the value of elements such as faith,
hope, and compassion in the physical healing
process."
In a British study, 93 percent of patients with cancer said
that a connection to religion helped sustain their hopes in
physically healing. Such high figures deserve our attention.
It is important to become aware of the influence emotions
have on the physical body and how illness can affect
emotional health.
A 60 to 80 percent relationship has been found correlating
better health with religion or spirituality; studies covering
heart disease, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease,
immunological dysfunction, cancer, mortality, pain and
disability. Certain behaviors such as exercise, smoking,
substance misuse, burnout, and family and marital
breakdown has been shown to contribute to physical
breakdowns and illness. Depression, anxiety, suicide, and
personality problems can be prevented by improving
physical health. The Mind-Body healing experience goes
hand in hand.
Healing entails the restoration of psychobiological integrity
with the implication of personal growth and a sense of
renewal. Emotional values and nutritional skills are
increasingly recognized as necessary aspects of clinical care.
Proper nutrition and identifying the sources of physical body
imbalances can be directly related to emotional stress. By
increasing a state of health and wellness, emotional wellness
can be strengthened as well.
Compare emotional therapy with nutrition; neither is a
subject that healthcare providers can take for granted.
Inadequate nutrition is costly. If people are not fed properly,
resistance weakens and wounds do not heal. Evidence is
growing in volume and quality that this applies to emotional
sustenance, too.
Nutritional care promotes the healthy grieving of loss and
the maximizing of personal potential. It provides a sense of
meaning resulting in renewed hope and peace of mind,
enabling people to accept and live with otherwise insoluble
problems. Physical and emotional stress provides all concerned
with particular opportunities for healing, personal development,
and spiritual growth. Improved outcomes naturally follow.
Many see emotional therapy and medicine as peripheral to
one another, yet emotional and nutritional care belong
together. The time is now for all doctors and therapists to
recall, reinterpret, and reclaim our profession's sacred
dimension. Mind-Body healing is the connection for total
wellness.
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British Medical Journal December 21, 2002;325:1434-1435
Recommend reading, Dr. Daniel Benor, Spiritual Healing:
Scientific Validation of A Healing Revolution. Dr. Benor's book
contains 124 scientific studies supporting various methods of
spiritual healing.
