The Anticancer Mind
Illness, Brain-Heart System and Breath
One central question that David Servan-Schreiber MD PhD asks in his book, Anticancer: A New Way of Life, is this: How can cancer be controlled through thought? His answer lies in the integrated brain-heart system of the body and breath.
Overcoming Illness With the Mind
Servan-Schreiber recounts the situation of a 52-year-old woman diagnosed with an aggressive form of lymphoma. She received a bone marrow transplant which required the use of drugs toxic to her immune system. Her condition worsened so much she was kept in an isolation chamber.
There, in the silence, she clung to the one thing left - the feeling of breath rising and falling in her chest. With every breath, she connected to the things around her - the tree through the window, laughter of children in the corridor, stars at night. She experienced peace and connected with her will to live. Now twelve years later, she is alive, working and sound.
The Brain-Heart System
In answering his question, Servan-Schreiber considers the implications of brain-heart system as an integrated process represented by the Chinese ideogram, “thought.” Breaking the ideogram into its two components, brain and heart, he points to thought as the mechanism by which brain and heart is linked together.
The mind’s link to the body’s emotions is one of the predisposing factors of both cancer and anticancer. It is by thought that man enables the genetic components of cancer within his body to express themselves; so by thought can man remove the components of such expression as well.
Candace Pert Ph.D., one of the first scientists to identify the link between the brain’s response to emotions and the activity of the immune system, calls the emotional brain circuitry “the mobile brain.”
Why is it that women with breast cancer who face their disease with optimism produce more active cancer-resistant NK immune cells? Why is it that victims who “give up” emotionally usually lose the battle against cancer? These two aspects are part of the same brain.
Breathing to Heal Illness
How does breath play into this equation? Breath is the gateway to the biology of the inner self. Breathing is the body function that works automatically. Breathing takes place without thought, yet it can also be modulated by conscious intent. Attention to breathing brings the mind closer to the rhythm of body processes and ultimately to the rhythm of inner space.
Luciano Bernardi MD. Ph.D. of the University of Pavia in Italy is convinced that good health is most accurately indicated by a sound balance between the various biorhythms of the body. This balance occurs when individuals repeat the rosary or mantras at the pace of six breaths per minute, the natural rhythm of biological functions in the body.
Synchronization occurs such that the rhythm of each function resonates with the others, mutually reinforcing each other. Studies have also shown that breathing and concentration produce positive influences in heart rate variations. Moreover, coherence in biological rhythms is associated with stronger immunity, reduced inflammation, blood level regulation, all of which produce anticancer effects.
Modern medicine has revealed the power of the anticancer mind, a unique synchronization of brain-heart system and breath which can disrupt the progress of terminal illness like cancer.
Source:
- David Servan-Schreiber M.D. Ph.D. Anticancer: A New Way of Life. New York: Viking, 2008.
The Brain-Heart System
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