Chronic Illness Q&A with Dr. B.

This question & answer column is for people living with chronic health challenges and their family caregivers, who want to learn to increase the odds of improving their health by learning to live with mastery & wellbeing.

I invite you to post your questions in the comments box below. When I get a certain number of related questions, I pick one that covers them all and I answer that one.

I post to this blog three times per week. Monday posts are relevant published articles. Wednesday posts are interviews—mostly video. Friday posts consist of questions about living better with chronic health challenges, and my answers to them.

Here is today’s question:

QUESTION:   If someone hasn’t benefited from medical standard of care or from complementary and alternative care, is there anything left to try?

ANSWER: There are anecdotes dating back centuries of deathly ill patients making full recoveries from every imaginable disease.  Researchers have examined thousands of such reports, in which both the diagnosis and the recovery had been confirmed by medical records. Three informative books in this area are:

1. “Cancer As A Turning Point” by LeShan

2. “Remarkable Recovery: What Extraordinary Healings Tell Us About Getting Well” by Hirshberg and Barasch

3. “Spontaneous Remission: An Annotated Bibliography” by  O’Regan and Hirshberg.

The single common variable that seems most consistent relates to the power of the mind. Throughout my website and in all my talks, I focus on the most evidence-based ways to create a healing mind-state.  Of those, the three that seem most important are mindfulness practice, finding meaning and purpose in order to have a strong reason to live, and social support, which can come in many forms. 

This website is offered as a free public service, supplying information that has been found helpful to certain people living with chronic health challenges. No treatment is offered on this website. The advice is general, and may or may not apply to your individual situation, and is not a substitute for psychotherapy or medical treatment.

What questions do you have about how to live better with chronic health challenges that are related to the relationship between states of mind and health? 

Just scroll down and type your question in the comment box. I will post a reply to your comment, but your question may not appear in this column.