Activating the Mind/Body Connection

BY RALPH BLUM

Once you have found a medical team you trust, and have decided which treatment option is best for you (and that may be no immediate treatment), the single most important thing you can do is take an active role in your own recovery.  Respected psychiatrist and cancer researcher Dr. David Spiegel wrote, “Medicine has focused so much on attacking the tumor that it has tended to ignore the body coping with the tumor, and the social and psychological variables that influence the somatic response to tumor invasion.”

As your immune system is the most powerful defense your body has against cancer, it is your task to do everything you can to support it. We all know that exercise and proper diet contribute to general good health and, therefore, to a healthy immune system. And most cancer survivors agree that vitamins and herbal supplements support maximum immune function and have made them a part of their recovery program. But your task doesn’t stop there.

Research in the field of psychoneuroimmunology attests to the central role our emotions play in supporting our immune system and promoting healing. What you think and feel can directly impact your health. And it is generally agreed that the most potent immune suppressor is chronic emotional stress that floods the body with adrenaline and cortisone derivatives that interfere with the immune system’s ability to seek out and destroy cancer cells. Of course this is a Catch 22, because a cancer diagnosis inevitably triggers a roller coaster of negative emotions—fear, anger, anxiety, resentment, grief, despair—all of which, when held onto, act to suppress the immune system. You can’t expect to prevent these negative feelings. The trick is to acknowledge them, and then refuse to get stuck in them.

Blood tests have shown strikingly improved immune function among people who emote, and even those who confide their feelings to a diary show better immune function. Having an intimate group of supportive friends, or simply meeting with others in a support group once a week can improve your chance of recovery. Practicing simple meditation and visualization (there are dozens of pre-recorded guided imagery and relaxation tapes available) supports your immune system and promotes healing. And then there’s my favorite immune booster: laughter. When you laugh, natural killer cells increase, as do T cells and B cells that make disease-fighting anti-bodies. So whatever other supplements you take, be sure to include laughter.

Above all, the will to live, a sense of optimism, and your belief in your chosen treatment play a huge role in your recovery.  Combining the will to live with hope—the deeply confident expectation that you can beat this cancer—has a profound healing effect.

The Vital Intangibles

BY RALPH BLUM

After living with prostate cancer for over two decades, there are some things that really stick in my mind as a “need to know” for anyone newly diagnosed with the disease. The most relevant of these is the major impact you can have on your own healing.

Greg Anderson who, after surviving “terminal” lung cancer, founded the Cancer Recovery Foundation, once said, “Retaining a medical team without doing everything you can to help yourself is like attempting to walk with one stilt.”

Your doctors will primarily be focused on attacking the tumor.  It is your responsibility to support your mind, body, spirit—and your immune system.  When I was first diagnosed, my ignorance about the immune system was monumental. Since then I’ve learned that my brain is constantly sending my immune system chemical messages which, for better or worse, influence its ability to function effectively.

A diagnosis of cancer tends to be overwhelming, and can generate feelings of disempowering fear and of loss of control. These responses have a negative physiological impact on the immune system. So reclaiming a sense of being in charge of your own life and health is an important foundation of the healing process.

There is growing evidence that creating high levels of well-being with proper nutrition, adequate exercise, stress management and emotional support is as necessary to your recovery as whichever cancer treatment you choose.

After understanding your diagnosis you will have several treatment options. Depending on the results of your pathology report, your doctor will recommend what he considers to be the best treatment program for you. But you need to play the central role in this decision. A passive, “Whatever you say, doc,” attitude will not serve you.

Before you commit to any treatment it is essential that you thoroughly research it, and are convinced that it is the right treatment for you. It is equally essential that you follow it with conviction, with the belief that it will be successful.  Hope, optimism, and excited belief are the great intangibles. The correlation between belief in treatment and effectiveness of treatment is extremely high.

Remember: Your medical team will be addressing just one part of your cancer journey. It is up to you to focus on your general health, and to examine your attitudes and your beliefs. According to a relatively new field of health psychology called “illness representation,” your beliefs and expectations really do impact the outcome of the disease.

 

Stress: Romancing the Immune System (Part 2)

BY RALPH BLUM

Thanks to having to find a way to co-exist with prostate cancer for nearly a quarter of a century, I found myself enrolled in “Stress 101.”  And as I don’t have Mark’s scientific background, my take on how to alleviate the inevitable stress of dealing with this disease revolves mainly around mind-body interaction; in particular, the ways in which our chronic fears and concerns inhibit immune function and thus jeopardize our recovery.

Around three thousand years ago, King Solomon declared that, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.” And I learned from Mark that the “wet” part of the bones—otherwise known as the bone marrow—is where the immune system is located.

In Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers I reported that, due to my refusal to redo a botched biopsy, there was no “proof positive” that I had prostate cancer. So, despite a urologist’s report evaluating the lump in my prostate as “suspicious for well-differentiated adenocarcinoma,” I returned to my home on Maui where I spent nine peaceful years enjoying my life. I had no idea at the time that those worry-free years in upcountry Maui supported and even strengthened my immune system. I am now convinced that they helped to keep the cancer dormant, on hold.

But then a series of life circumstances left me chronically stressed and depressed. I began to worry that perhaps I had been a fool not committing to treatment. And sure enough, that was when my PSA began to climb and the tumor began to grow.

My ignorance about the immune system at that time was monumental, but when I started to find out what makes it tick, I realized that my brain was constantly sending my immune system chemical messages which, for better or worse, influenced its ability to function. There is no doubt that good nutrition and staying physically active play a role in supporting a healthy immune system. My problem was I have never been big on raw foods, low carbs or a high intake of leafy greens. And I have an aversion to most forms of exercise. So I decided to focus on “romancing” my immune system by sending it benign signals.

In my next blog I will go further into what I have termed positive emotional-chemical text messages.