Mind Over Disease? Or Only Mind Over Illness?
DISEASE IS WHAT MEDICINE concentrates on; illness is what the patient deals with. They’re related, but they’re not the same.
IS IT REALLY ONLY MIND over illness? Or could it really be mind over disease? Could how we think really affect the disease itself?
THOSE OF US WHO KEEP OUR PRAYER muscles well exercised certainly have a different illness experience than those who don’t. By reframing our mind’s references, we affect the way we experience disease. But, it goes further than that.
THOSE WHO STUDY psychonueroimmunology (PNI)--and they’re a pretty impressive lot--tell us that the immune system can be taught. To prove the point, PNI studies have found that under stress the body uses energy to prepare for survival. If stressors remain too intense for too long, the energy that the body would normally use to fight disease is misdirected to the fight-or-flight response. In time, the immune system is suppressed.
CANCER PATIENTS, AND OTHERS who are ill, are desperately in need of a well-tuned, “smart” immune system. They have to reverse this suppression, and those of us who believe God have an edge. When doctors tell us we mustn’t give up hope, we know what they mean. Fear dwells in hopelessness, and fear—a major trigger for survival instincts—is the immune system’s enemy.
WELL, I’M NO SCIENTIST, but I do know how to send fear out of my life and bring hope in. . . on my knees.
You’re blessed. Be a blessing!
IS IT REALLY ONLY MIND over illness? Or could it really be mind over disease? Could how we think really affect the disease itself?
THOSE OF US WHO KEEP OUR PRAYER muscles well exercised certainly have a different illness experience than those who don’t. By reframing our mind’s references, we affect the way we experience disease. But, it goes further than that.
THOSE WHO STUDY psychonueroimmunology (PNI)--and they’re a pretty impressive lot--tell us that the immune system can be taught. To prove the point, PNI studies have found that under stress the body uses energy to prepare for survival. If stressors remain too intense for too long, the energy that the body would normally use to fight disease is misdirected to the fight-or-flight response. In time, the immune system is suppressed.
CANCER PATIENTS, AND OTHERS who are ill, are desperately in need of a well-tuned, “smart” immune system. They have to reverse this suppression, and those of us who believe God have an edge. When doctors tell us we mustn’t give up hope, we know what they mean. Fear dwells in hopelessness, and fear—a major trigger for survival instincts—is the immune system’s enemy.
WELL, I’M NO SCIENTIST, but I do know how to send fear out of my life and bring hope in. . . on my knees.
You’re blessed. Be a blessing!
posted by Chronic Hope at 7:10 AM
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