Patients can will themselves to health—doctor

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 7

Patients can will themselves to health —doctor

By

DEBORAH MCPHERSON

A New Zealand doctor expects to be challenged by his colleagues on his radical theories about health which suggest people have the power to cure themselves with a bit of "creative thinking.”

The founder of New Zealand’s first Creative Health Institute, British-born and trained, Dr Andrew Bell, was in Christchurch yesterday to promote his first book, “Creative Health: Beginning the Journey to Wellness.” The book says people have the power to choose between illness and wellness, even those with terminal illnesses such as cancer and A.I.D.S. Dr Bell links illness with unfaced fears or suppressed emotions, and concludes that people have the ability to control pain through positive thinking and a rhanop nf

Dr Bell said he expected and would welcome challenges to his theories, because he was not trying to impose them on anyone. A growing body of evidence existed which accepted that feelings could alter the functioning of the body’s immune system, he said. “There are connections between the immune system and the brain and the endocrine (hormones) system.” Stress was often associated with stomach ulcers, so it was not unlikely that other emotions could also trigger illness, said Dr Bell. “Health is not just about absence of disease, but is also about our relationships to other people and the. world around us.” “If we believe illnesses such as cancer are a death sentence, we are unable to take rpcnnnQihility fnr our health.

“If, on the other hand, we are prepared to look at the significance of illness in our lives and open our minds to a positive outcome, we can have the power to heal ourselves,” he said. “I don’t mind if people drink carrot juice and hang from the ceiling — the important thing is that people explore their own beliefs until they see a hole in them and make that quantum leap in understanding to see that positive outcome.” People who believed they could get well, but did not, had not failed, he said. “I am not sitting in judgment on people. I am just saying here are some other options.” As a trained family doctor, Dr Bell said he was not against the use of conventional medicine. People needed to be informed, however, about allyihe choices of therapy

open to them and make a decision themselves about what they would do, instead of handing over the responsibility to doctors, he said. Dr Bell’s theories were received sceptically yesterday by a Christchurch member of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of the Claims of the Paranormal, Mr Denis Dutton. Believing something was real did not make it a reality, he said. Putting the onus of responsibility on the patient for a life-threatening illness was cruel. A cancer specialist at Christchurch Hospital, Dr Bridget Robinson, said noone would dispute the fact that “if you feel good you feel better,” but she had some concerns about applying that theory to cancer patients.

There was not enough evidence yet to show people could change whether they could live pr die by how they fel£