Here is a story. Once upon a time a woman complained of physical pain. She was tired and couldn’t even get up. She changed doctors after doctors and they prescribed different medicines. She took them religiously but to no avail: the medicines wouldn’t cure her and would only alleviate pain temporarily.
At last she had exhausted the services of every doctor in town. At that point she heard of another doctor, an alternative medicine practitioner. He was practising deep within the jungle and his medicines constituted herbs, leaves and other natural products. She decided to visit this man in the hope of a miraculous cure.
After listening to her symptoms and history he gave her a bottle of saline solution. The ‘medicine’ was given with the repeated assurance that the water from which it was made had magical properties and it would cure her within a month. She took it religiously as she had taken her previous medicines, but this time she took it with conviction. Within the stipulated time-frame she was well, and not at all weary anymore.
This story is not just about the woman; she represents modern medicine. We cannot solely put our trust on medicines when the cure lies at another level. Modern medicine, though revered, should never take pride in itself for it is not exhaustive. It is intertwined, with and a necessary extension of, other branches of medicine.
The story isn’t just about upholding the power of beliefs but points to the systemic flaws of medicine and how practitioners are inherently treating the symptoms and not the disease.
If disease were a plant then the system is pruning it instead of uprooting it.
It also shows a disturbing trend of increasing psychosomatic diseases. Most often, patients have advanced versions of stress-induced disorders such as hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
Psychosomatic disorders provide disturbing proof that our thoughts do transcend and seep into our reality. Though they are not a result of a bad day but a culmination of all the days that we worried and jumped to the worst conclusions, the day we stopped expressing and stood with our tightened fists holding burning coals of all the things, memories and circumstances that we did not let go of. It might at earlier stages appear as mood swings and then trap us in a vicious cycle of negativity. It can be best assessed by the intensity of our emotions at the slightest provocation, our repressed emotions and our responses to how we tolerate pain, how we respond to situations and move through moments of crisis.
If stress has the power to reduce our body immunity, inducing heartaches and attacks, sending our neurological processes off balance and causing hormone secretion, then surely a deliberate attempt to avoid stress and a firm belief that we are healthy, with a dose of gratitude and pinch of positivity, can do wonders.
In allopathy, there are side-effects to medicines. At best we run the risk of damaging our liver in the long run. Since the drug has its side-effects the doctor prescribes a slew of other pills to counter them, and thus the plant of disease grows profusely. While in taking them we become conscious of our disease, it further serves as a reaffirmation of our thoughts that we really are ill.
Alternative medical systems such as ayurveda, homeopathy, siddha and yoga should also be a part of our daily medical intake, for the things that cure us don’t necessarily come as a pill or with a price tag. It is in the simple joys and the mindset to not let our circumstances dictate our emotions.
The placebo effect is in the present scenario diluted and sold by lifestyle coaches as positivity and the law of attraction. It is no secret that happiness and positive thinking helps release happy hormones, thus making the individual more relaxed, fulfilled, productive and able to tackle the problems at hand. Belief has far-reaching medical significance and it can single-handedly reduce the global disease burden by half and enormously increase productivity, improve health and grow the economy.
There is a need to rethink how modern medicine, or should we say the medicine man, treats a disease. There should be a clear understanding that no branch of science is exhaustive enough but only an extension of another so the need to cooperate and work together towards a common goal becomes important. For a patient is not just a body with a disease. Their histories are as much a part of their lives and need to be a part of their medical records if real cure has to be initiated. The patient who persistently believes he or she is well becomes so. The belief becomes a thought system and that initiates a neurological response and changes hormonal secretion to suit the patient’s beliefs.
We need to rethink what is our belief system. Like the iceberg, a majority of our beliefs are hidden from us. We need to be like the miraculous doctor with a different approach. We need to prescribe ourselves doses of positivity to change what controls our responses to the situations that we cannot control.
If we are successful in instilling the healing power of belief, then it will certainly lead to a rejuvenation for the global economy as it will save costs and the necessary funds can be directed to treat the disease in its pure form.
