I have just finished re-reading “The Biology of Belief” by Dr Bruce Lipton, who was just in Loveland, Colorado last month at a speaking engagement. Alas, too far away for me to get there.
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Dr Lipton for this book and I’ll tell you why.
When I was going through breast cancer in 2004, the thing I struggled with the most (my elephant in the room) was my inherited genes from my mother and grandmother, who both died from breast cancer.
There were times when I thought, “What’s the use of doing chemotherapy if I am just going to die from this anyway?”
Being a natural therapist, I was aware of how powerful the mind is and I knew what a self-limiting belief this was and that it wasn’t doing me ANY good at all.
A Friend to the Rescue
About that time, I shared that worry with a new friend of mine, another woman going through breast cancer. She invited me to her house to collect a video tape she’d received from somewhere, so on one rainy day I drove over and met her and she gave me the video to watch.
It was Dr Bruce Lipton giving a talk entitled “The Biology of Belief” about how OUR GENES ARE NOT OUR DESTINY.
That video is now available on You Tube and you can access it here . It’s an hour long so be patient but please do watch it – it’s very powerful and will change the way you think about genes.
I felt totally liberated when I watched that video, and I began to change my thoughts to more positive, nurturing beliefs.
There Is More In The Book
Once you’ve watched the video, you still owe it to yourself to read the book. Dr Lipton mentions lots of interesting things in the book that the video doesn’t cover.
I especially loved the section where he discusses the genes that supposedly cause breast cancer, BRCA1 and BRCA2. Dr Lipton says that 95% of breast cancers are NOT due to inherited genes, but to malignancies derived from environmentally induced “epigenetic alterations” (not due to genes).
I really enjoyed the section on prescription drugs, “Buying the Pharm”. Dr Lipton tells us that pharmaceutical drugs are responsible for more than 300,000 deaths per year. Did you know that? Definitely read that section of the book. It should be required reading for all medical students.
Dr Lipton states “Using prescription drugs to silence a body’s symptoms enables us to ignore personal involvement we may have with the onset of those symptoms. The overuse of prescription drugs provides a vacation from personal responsibility.” Confronting, I know.
Another eye opener – did you know that drug companies are studying patients who respond to sugar pills (placebos) with the goal of eliminating them from early clinical trials? It apparently disturbs pharmaceutical companies that in most of their clinical trials the placebos (the “fake” drugs) prove to be as effective as their “engineered chemical cocktails.”
Which just demonstrates to me that we as humans are susceptible to the healing power of “something” you feel is going to help you. Makes me think of leeches, blood-letting, rattlesnake oil…
Placebo vs Nocebo Effect
In the book, Dr Lipton discusses the interesting difference between the placebo effect, when the mind, through positive suggestions improves something injured or diseased in the body, and the nocebo effect, when the same mind is engaged in negative suggestions that can damage health.
How many of us have heard of the patient who walked into his doctor’s office, is told that he only has 8 weeks to live and 8 weeks later he promptly gives up the ghost? That’s the nocebo effect in action.
I was telling you just the other day of a friend of mine who was told he only had a few months to live, to go home and get his affairs in order, but he chose not to accept that. He went in search of holistic medicine and he’s still here with us 16 years later. That’s the placebo effect working (along with a whole bunch of other things!).
Finally, I have found Dr David Hamilton’s wonderful YouTube video called How Your Mind Can Heal Your Body. And he has a wonderful Scottish accent. Enjoy (it’s only 6 minutes long).
I think I’m in love…
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