March
2003
Should
doctors love their patients?
by Dr. Jonathan B. Sevy
Some
call it "psychological mumbo jumbo," or argue that "mind
games can't heal serious diseases." But the scientific literature
tells otherwise. The healing power of love is much more than psychology.
It dramatically increases the safety and effectiveness of all other
therapies. In fact, it is one of the most powerful tools any healer has.
Research
about love healing
A
few years ago, a study was conducted in which rabbits were injected with
toxins that would kill them in a short time. But one group of rabbits were
not dying as expected. Their survival rate was out of all expected norms.
How did they obtain this seemingly super immunity?
A
young research assistant, her heart filled with compassion, was skewing
the results -- by holding and fondling her little subjects after each
injection.
Another
example: hospitals found long ago that babies placed in sterile incubators
with high tech care died at an alarming rate. The answer was not in
changing the temperature or hydration or even nutrition -- but in giving
them love. Today volunteers and nurses cuddle and stroke these little
ones. Love saves lives, builds immunity and enhances resistance to
disease.
Love
- the doctor's guiding principle
The
doctor's love for the patient should be the guiding factor in all health
care. My mentors, Jim and Karl Parker, have taught chiropractors for over
50 years to make "Loving Service My First Technique" -- LS/MFT.
In millions of cases we have proven the value of this fundamental axiom.
How
love works
How
does love exert such a profound influence in the healing process? Here are
some observations into how love heals.
On
the most basic physical and mental planes, love propels doctors to
constant self-improvement. Loving doctors continually strive to improve
their technical skills and refine clinical knowledge. They attend
professional and post-graduate seminars, not as tax-deductible tanning
trips, but for the classes and for sharing of knowledge with other
colleagues. They want to be better today than yesterday, better tomorrow
than today.
Love
compels doctors to act with integrity. One would never order expensive,
unnecessary tests or procedures for one's mother or child. Money is
necessary to keep the doors open, to feed and clothe the doctor's
children, but in the loving office money ceases to become the driving
force.
Hippocrates
commanded, "Primum no nocere" -- "First do no harm."
Doctors who love their patients do not hurt their patients. When I regard
a patient as my father, mother, sister, brother or child, somehow my hands
become softer, my touch more gentle. I am mysteriously, almost magically
able to do more with less. I do not understand this completely, but I have
seen it, heard about it, and experienced it many times. So have you, I
think.
Loving
doctors teach their patients the principles of healthy living. Catching
diseases in the early stages is not good enough for our loved ones. We
want to show them how to keep themselves free of disease, and motivate
them to do it! Bound together by the golden cords of compassion -- a
feeling of oneness -- doctor and patient are both uplifted.
Warm,
familial feelings give doctors the courage to frankly confront patients
about self-destructive behaviors. I have seen the finest doctors I know
sit knee to knee with patients, insisting with love that they either
change their habits or find another doctor. With bold compassion they
challenge, motivate and then nurture the small, progressive changes that
revolutionize the lives of adults and children under their care.
Love
creates a psychology that boosts the body's resistance to disease. People
in the town of
Roseto
,
Penn.
,
have demonstrated how a supportive, loving environment reduces the rate of
heart attacks by 50 percent. Researchers found them to be generally
overweight, with high fat consumption and elevated blood cholesterol. They
lived sedentary lives and smoked. But they were a close-knit community
with strong social ties and a sense of belonging. The atmosphere of love
caressed them, stimulated their immunity and improved their lives. It
dramatically improved their health and longevity. Like the lights of home
in the distance, the love of a doctor can light up the lives of his
patients.
Finally,
love generates very real, though unseen, fields of subtle healing energy
-- frequencies that we are only now developing technology to measure.
Leonard Laskow, M.D., reports a study where loving intention slowed the
growth of tumor cells in a laboratory by up to 41%. This is not psychology
-- the cells in those petri dishes were not just feeling better about
themselves!
Cold
objectivity is out
Cold
objectivity has no place in the healing practice, with sick and suffering
patients. Many still promote such dispassion in research, but even there
the subject is being hotly debated. Drs. Judith Green and Robert
Shellenberger have said, "the scientific study of love epitomizes the
aim of all -- science."
Loving
the patient greatly magnifies a healer's ability. It also amplifies the
patient's innate ability to heal, and to maintain health. The loving
practice draws naturally right patients and doctors together. It vastly
increases their synergistic healing power. Love builds between healer and
patient a special partnership of trust and co-reliance that lightens our
step along the challenging, exhilarating voyage of a radiantly healthy
life.
(Dr.
Jonathan Sevy graduated from WSCC in 1988. He has been practicing and
teaching since that time, and is currently writing "Watch Where
You're Putting Your Hands -- The Mothers' Handbook for Home
Chiropractic." He is an international speaker and writer, and lives
in
British
Columbia
,
Canada
with his wife, Barbara and two of their eight children. Dr. Sevy's website
is www.chiromoms.com.)
