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.

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 boy's 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, "It's 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, psychoneuroimmunolo gy 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 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 today's high stress society, most of our
threats do not involve physical danger. However, the mind's
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
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 doctor's 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 one's 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.

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