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11 July 2016

The healing power of service

by Edward V. Brown

A discussion of the healing value of the positive interrelationships

generated in serving one's fellows.

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A few years ago in a small rural town in Oregon, USA, a teenage

boy died in a drowning accident. In all likelihood his death could
have been prevented if an ambulance and trained medical
personnel had been available. However, this small town was too
poor to afford these services.
The boys mother grieved for the loss of her son, but she also
transformed her grief into a service to her community. While she
could not regain her son, she worked to prevent a similar tragedy.
This woman trained and became an Emergency Medical
Technician. After completing her training she raised money to
purchase an ambulance and trained volunteers to help her. It is
estimated that this volunteer ambulance service has saved the lives
of over 100 people that might have died, as her son did, due to a
lack of emergency care. When interviewed, this woman said, "Its
easier to forget your own loss when you are busy helping others."
Medical scientists are beginning to discover what this woman
already knows: that there is healing power in helping others. This
new field of specialization, psychoneuroimmunology or PNI for
short, researches the power of the mind to influence health and
healing. This research has produced some startling results. IgA is
an antibody that helps the body defend itself from infection.
Harvard psychologist David McClelland measured this antibody in
students before and after watching a film on Mother Teresa, the
Nobel Prize laureate, for her work helping the homeless. Dr
McClelland found that merely watching a film on selfless service
strengthened the immune response in the students.
While Chinese and Indian medicine have long considered the mind
and the body as inseparable, Western science since the time of
Descartes has viewed the mind and body as separate unrelated
entities. The PNI research is providing concrete evidence that this
separation is artificial and erroneous. Studies have traced direct
neurological pathways between the brain and the immune system.
This research shows that the immune system, consisting primarily
of several types of white blood cells, is controlled by the nervous
system and that the white blood cells in turn are capable of

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transmitting chemical messages back to the brain.

Many health statistics demonstrate that the mind can influence the
body. Stressful life events such as the death of a spouse, divorce,
or loss of employment greatly increase your risk of becoming ill. In
the words of Hans Selye MD, "What we call ageing is nothing more
than the sum total of all the scars left by the stress of life".
The so-called Type A personality is an example of how the way we
think and act affects our health. Type A individuals tend to move
and react quickly. They may do two things at the same time and
find it difficult to relax. These hard driving, hurried, and competitive
individuals have increased risk of heart attack and stroke. Newer
research suggests that the tendency to become angry or irritated is
the most damaging aspect of Type A behavior.
Fight or flight
Events that are perceived as stressful evoke what is referred to as
the "fight or flight" response. In response to danger, the body
secretes hormones that cause the heart and lungs to work faster,
blood pressure goes up, skeletal muscles tighten, and digestive
processes slow down. All of these changes are to prepare the body
for physical exertion. In todays high stress society, most of our
threats do not involve physical danger. However, the minds
imagination is so powerful that a perceived stress elicits the same
fight or flight response that a physical stress evokes. When our
body is primed for physical activity by the stress response and we
continue with our sedentary activity, this imposes an added burden
on the body, somewhat like stepping on the accelerator in your
automobile while at the same time holding down the brake pedal.
Cancer is a disease that is influenced by the stress response. One
researcher found that the majority of cancer patients had a severe
emotional trauma early in life, such as the loss of a parent. Other
research suggests that cancer patients have difficulty expressing
their emotions. One can speculate that pent-up emotional energy
finds its outlet in the manifestation of cancer.
Another aspect of cancer-prone personalities is their rigid way of
looking at the world. They perceive self-imposed rules by which
they must live. When life situations develop that do not conform to
the rules, there is a feeling of helplessness. They see themselves
as victims of circumstances beyond their control and give up. This
mental surrender leads to a weakening of immune function.
Considering the direct links between the brain and the immune
system, this is not surprising. It appears that mentally giving up
does not cause cancer so much as it allows cancer to develop.
While the mind-body connection has been known for years, modern

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medicine has had difficulty translating this information into viable

treatment alternatives. What are the medical implications of these
new discoveries and how can we use this information to facilitate
health and healing? If mental and emotional states influence our
susceptibility to disease, can we not also use the power of the mind
to strengthen our healing response?
Dr Herbert Benson of Harvard University, author of The Relaxation
Response, teaches his patients a form of meditation. He finds that
the use of this technique for 20 minutes twice a day aids a whole
host of measurable clinical factors, such as lowered blood
pressure, lowered heart and breathing rate, decreased oxygen
consumption, and profound muscle relaxation. Dr Benson has
further refined the technique by adding the element of prayer to the
meditative technique. He has the person pick a word or phrase that
has religious or philosophical meaning in their personal belief
system. He finds that adding the faith factor to the relaxation
response increases its effectiveness.
Dr Carl Simonton, a cancer specialist, in his book Getting Well
Again, outlines visualization techniques to strengthen the healing
response. He has the patient mentally image the white blood cells
fighting and destroying the cancer cells. He finds that the ability to
image a positive outcome is essential if the disease process is to
reverse. When patients have difficulty with the visualization and has
a negative expectation about their treatment, invariably the
outcome is poor. However, when patients are successful in turning
around a negative self-attitude with creative visualization the results
can be remarkable.
Dr Bernie Siegel in Love, Medicine & Miracles urges the person to
become an "exceptional patient". By exceptional he means for the
patients to become an active partner in their recovery. Exceptional
patients are sometimes viewed as being difficult by traditional
medicine. They may question their doctors advice or even defy
their recommendations rather than being a passive recipient of
treatment. However, it is precisely this active interest in the course
of treatment and outcome that is required to marshal the enhanced
immune response.
The power of the mind to influence the body is beyond question; a
negative mental attitude can threaten ones health, and a positive
mental attitude will trigger changes within the body that promote
health and healing. Thus, while research shows that social isolation
is a major health risk factor, it also shows that people who do
volunteer work are much less likely to suffer illness. The close
interpersonal relationships and community involvement that occur
with volunteer service are tailor-made to enhance the healing
process.

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Dr Albert Schweitzer, the medical missionary, commented: "The

only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will
have sought and found how to serve". Considering the implications
of the PNI research, we might extend this to include altruistic
service of some kind as an essential element of becoming truly
healthy.
From the April 1989 issue of Share International

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First published April 1999, Last modified: 15-Oct-2005

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