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Posts Tagged ‘illness’

Let’s pay more attention to self-healing

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on December 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

We humans, like all other living organisms, are “complex adaptive systems”, and as such, we share a fundamental capacity to self-organise, self-defend, and self-heal. We know that, don’t we? Whenever you’ve had a cut, within a few days, the wound has been repaired, and often, without even leaving a scar. Whenever you’ve broken a bone, whether or not you’ve needed surgery or the help of a temporary plaster, your body repairs the damage. Whenever we’ve caught a virus, usually within a few days, our body has got rid of it, and repaired any damage done.

But in Modern Medicine, we don’t pay much attention to any of that. We are sold the idea that drugs “cure” or “heal”, when, actually, what they do is modify disease activity within the body.

There isn’t a single drug on the market which has been designed to stimulate and/or directly support self-healing.

And I’m not aware that any drug companies or research groups are even working on trying to do that.

Yet, nobody, but nobody, will recover from any illness without the natural self-healing functions doing what they are designed to do. There is no “artificial healing” (just as you could argue there is no “artificial intelligence”) – there is only natural healing. Natural healing is limited, of course. We are mortal creatures. Every single one of us will die, one day, from something….trauma, infection, or disease. Despite claims that some drugs are “life saving”, the marketers don’t actually mean they can stop you from ever dying! Similarly, natural healing can only achieve what is possible within the biological limits of a living creature.

I’ve no doubt many drugs can make life more comfortable, and many can modify the life history of a chronic pathology. But is that enough? Shouldn’t we, routinely, be exploring, with our patients, what we can do to promote and sustain self healing?

Take the example of post-surgical recovery. When we create the conditions which support self-repair and healing, then patients require less painkillers, develop less complications and make a longer lasting, quicker recovery.

If we don’t use the methodologies which are directly intended to stimulate and sustain self-healing and/or we don’t help patients to access the care and environments which are conducive to self-healing, we aren’t really doing a complete job. Are we?

So, here’s my challenge. See if you can find out what we know supports self-healing….then look to draw upon some of that any time you, or your patient, is ill.

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Is it physical?

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »

One of the things which frustrates me most about Medicine is this question – “Is it physical?”, which may be asked in a slightly other form – “Is it organic?”, (or, the apparent opposite – “Is it functional?”), “Is it a problem of the body or the mind?”. This way of thinking which divides illnesses into two categories, separating out the mind from the body, is still way too common. It’s common in patients who refuse to accept their illness could have anything to do with their mind – “it’s a virus”, “it’s a hormone problem”, “it’s my genes” – usually because they have been led to believe that a problem involving the mind is a “mental problem”, which strangely continues to carry a stigma that an infection, or a broken leg don’t carry. Separating out the mind from the body is a common misunderstanding not least because it is promoted by doctors who should really know better by now.

The human being is a living, multicellular organism. Starting from a single, fertilised egg cell, the foetus doubles and doubles and doubles the number of cells, until the fully formed human being is born with trillions of cells on board. Trillions. It’s too big a number to visualise. In fact, the number of cells in a human body are estimated, not accurately counted, partly because cells die and are replaced constantly. None of these cells exist in isolation. They are all in constant communication with, and respond to, other cells within the organism, so that although we each have a heart, two lungs, a stomach, a liver, a brain etc, none of these organs exist by themselves. Every single one of them is “integrated” with all the others – that means each is in an active two-way relationship with other organs, tissues and cells. The cells of your body don’t compete with each other. They collaborate. They work together to make the whole organism healthy, so that it can adapt and to grow.

The mind, as best we understand it so far, is more than a function of the brain. It’s embodied. There are extensive neural and endocrine networks throughout the body which work together to produce what we call the mind. This understanding of mind is sometimes referred to as “embodied mind”. Search for that term online to learn more if you like. It’s a useful concept which allows us to see that the mind is not confined to the skull.

It turns out that terms like “heart felt”, and “gut feeling”, are not mere metaphors, but reflect biochemical activities and phenomena which involve, not only the heart and the digestive system, but the whole organism.

I used to say to patients and medical students, I only ever saw a body without a mind in the mortuary, and I never met a mind without a body.

It makes no sense to me to separate out the mind from the body, because when illness occurs, it might arise in a specific tissue, or organ (or it might not), but the response to the disorder is a whole being response – we use the powers of every system within the body, and our abilities to think and to feel (I mean emotional feeling), to defend and repair.

The big problem with separating off the mind from the body and looking for “physical” or “organic” problems is that if all the lab tests and imaging comes back within normal limits, an illness ends up being classed as “mental” – and treatments for mental disorders are then offered. Or worse, it is dismissed as “not real”.

But there is another way to look at all of this – a holistic way – where we don’t separate out the mind from the body and whatever the disease, we seek to address the person, not simply some of their cells or organs. Yes, maybe there are cellular pathologies which can be, and should be addressed, but healing and repair always involves a whole person.

Wouldn’t it be better if we never limited ourselves to addressing “pathologies” in cells and systems, but, rather, in addition (and not or, remember), we engaged with the whole person through their story, their actions, their thoughts and feelings? Shouldn’t we address the circumstances of their lives, because nobody lives in isolation from environmental influences?

It makes no sense to me to address only a pathology found in a particular tissue or organ. Medicine isn’t a kind of mechanics. It’s an art, and science, of understanding and relating.

By the way, do you think you can see the suggestion of a heart on the bark of that sequoia in the photo I’ve posted above?

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