Healing and the Mind

[Guest guest]

An interesting article from http://www.zukav.com/index.htm:

Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. was the founding Executive Director of the Center

for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society; founder and

former director of its world-famous Stress Reduction Clinic; and

Professor of Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Healing and the Mind:

Picture this: a person with the skin disease psoriasis comes into the

hospital for treatment three times per week. Treatment consists of

standing naked in a cylindrical box lined with ultraviolet light bulbs

and having the skin be exposed for up to ten minutes to ultraviolet

light. Over time, the dry, unsightly, itchy patches of skin

characteristic of psoriasis, which can cover large regions of the body

in severe cases, gradually clear up, and the skin resumes its normal

appearance. The scaly patches may very well return at some point,

especially with psychological stress, but for at least some period of

time, often quite long, the skin has a normal appearance.

Now picture this: another person with psoriasis comes into the hospital,

goes into the lightbox, and meditates, following instructions played on

a tape, while standing in the lightbox under the lights. Over time, as

the treatments get longer, the patient hears more and more of the taped

instructions. Over time, that persons skin also clears.

Now the question is this: if you compare people just getting the

ultraviolet light treatment by itself with those who are meditating

while they are receiving the treatments, is there any difference in the

overall rate at which the skin clears between the two groups? The answer

is the meditators' skin cleared approximately four times the rate of the

non-meditators, all other things being equal.

This study suggests that something those folks in the meditation group

were doing speeded up the process of healing in a dramatic way. But all

they were doing was listening to a tape which suggested they pay

attention to their body sensations while standing under the hot lights -

to sensations associated with their breathing, and what they were

hearing (mostly loud fans circulating the air). The tape also instructed

them to visualize the light slowing down and then stopping the division

of the rapidly growing cells in the epidermis. When people ask me what

is on the tape, I like to say that most of the tape is silent (which is

true) and the rest is instructions for how to use the silence by paying

attention (what meditation is about).

Whatever the meditators were doing (and this study does not prove that

it is the meditation that was effective), something their minds were

engaged in contributed to their skin clearing faster than it would have

with the light alone. They would tell us that they felt they were

participating in their treatments for the first time rather than just

being passive recipients of treatment, and that felt good to them, and

important. They had a sense that perhaps they were helping themselves by

engaging in this way, while they were being helped by the treatment as

well.

This study is an example of " integrative medicine " or " mind-body

medicine. It is integrative because the mind-body treatment (the

meditation/visualization) is integrated into the traditional medical

treatment (the ultraviolet light). Integrative medicine is now happening

in mainstream medicine, in hospitals, in cooperation with the

physicians, and not part of alternative adjunct treatments the primary

physician might not know about.

This study also suggests that treatment costs can be reduced because

patients may need fewer treatments. Those who heal faster by using their

minds in this way are also exposed to less ultraviolet light because

they need fewer treatments, and the UV light is itself a risk factor for

skin cancer. Finally, it suggests that a focused mind can influence

uncontrolled cell proliferation in a positive way and may therefore have

applications in the treatment of certain cancers. So we can see that

this study suggests a number of important medical implications for

understanding the relationship of the mind to healing.

This is only one of many studies to come out of the Center for

Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of

Massachusetts Medical School and its world-famous Stress Reduction

Clinic. Over 13 thousand patients have completed an eight-week

outpatient program in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) at the

UMass hospital, and hundreds of mindfulness-based stress reduction

programs have opened in hospitals, medical centers, and clinics around

the country and around the world. Many researchers are studying

mindfulness-based stress reduction and its effects on cancer,

fibromyalgia, depression and others. We have recently conducted a study

in a corporate work setting, which shows that mindfulness-based stress

reduction over eight weeks can favorably change how the brain processes

negative emotions under stress and increase immune function. And you may

not know this but Phil , famed coach of the NBA champion Chicago

Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, trains his players in mindfulness and

mindfulness-based stress reduction in collaboration with one of our

former colleagues in the Stress Reduction Clinic at UMass. Last, more

and more physicians and other health professionals want to learn

mindfulness, not only for their patients but also to deal with the

stress and pain in their own lives.

So what does this all add up to? It suggests that whoever you are and

whatever your circumstances, you are a miraculous being -- a genius

really. At any age you have deep inner resources for healing and

transformation that you can draw upon if you learn to pay attention in

new ways. It suggests that you do not have to wait until you get sick or

stressed or in unbearable physical or emotional pain before you begin

paying attention to what is most important and nourishing of your body

and soul.

This realization is slowly but inevitably changing the face of medicine

and health care. It is driven mostly by consumers (all of us) demanding

better services and alternatives that involve lifestyle changes and

non-traditional approaches to health than by medicine itself, but it is

also being accelerated by the economic and directional crises that are

facing medicine today. There is a growing body of scientific evidence

from many centers around the world suggesting that mind-body

participatory approaches can make important contributions to health and

healing across a life span. Becoming mindful of your life is a great

adventure, one that you can participate in merely by dropping in on

yourself, learning to linger there, and ultimately, living fully the

life that is yours to live.

I wish you well on this adventure.