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Health Matters with Trust Marandure
DRUGS are not the best option when it comes to the treatment of diseases.

People need to be taught that drugs do not cure diseases. It is true that they sometimes afford immediate relief and the patient appears to recover as the result of their use but this is because nature has sufficient vital force to expel the poison and to correct the conditions that caused the disease.

Health is recovered in spite of the drug. But in most cases the drug only changes the form and location of the disease. Often the effect of the poison seems to be overcome for a time, but the results remain in the system, and cause great harm at some later period.

Through using “poisonous” drugs, many bring upon themselves life long illness. Many lives are lost when they could have been saved by the use of natural methods of healing. The poison contained in many so-called remedies create habits and appetites that mean ruin to both soul and body.

Medical science is making remarkable discoveries about how expectations, emotions, and thoughts affect our health. This science is called psycho-neuroimmunology, or PNI. It studies how the brain communicates with the rest of the body by sending chemical messengers into the blood.

Researchers have found that one function of the brain is to produce substances that can improve your health. Your brain can create natural painkillers called endorphins, gammaglobulin for fortifying your immune system, and interferon for combating infections, viruses, and even cancer.

Your brain can combine these and other substances into a vast number of tailor-made prescriptions for the illness affecting you. The substances that your brain produces depend in part on your thoughts and feelings. In other words, your immune system’s ability to heal the body is linked to your state of mind and your state of mental wellness. Your level of optimism and your expectations of what could happen can affect what goes on inside your whole body.

Positive Thinking
People with positive attitudes generally enjoy life more, but are they any healthier? The answer is often yes. Optimism is a resource for healing. Optimistic people are more likely to overcome pain and adversity in their efforts to improve their medical treatment outcomes. For example, optimistic coronary bypass patients generally recover more quickly and have fewer postoperative complications than people who are less hopeful.
Conversely, pessimism seems to aggravate ill health. One long-term study showed that people who were pessimistic in college had significantly higher rates of illness by the age of 60. We seem to develop a tendency toward either optimism at an early age. However, even if your outlook on life tends to be gloomy, you can enjoy psychosomatic wellness by using your brain to support your immune system.

Boosting Your Immune System
Your immune system responds to your thoughts, emotions, and actions. In addition to staying fit, eating right, and managing stress, the following three strategies will help your immune system function better.

Create positive expectations for health and healing.
Mental and emotional expectations can influence medical outcomes. The effectiveness of any medical treatment depends in part on how useful you expect it to be. The ‘’placebo effect’’ proves that expectations affect health. A placebo is a drug or treatment that provides no medical benefit except for the patient’s belief that it will help. On the average, 35 percent of patients who receive placebos report satisfactory relief from their medical problem, even though they received no actual medication.

Changing your expectations from negative to positive may give your immune system a boost. Here is how to make the change:

Stop all negative self-talk. Make positive statements that promote your recovery.

Write your illness a letter. Tell it that you don’t need it anymore and that your immune system is now ready to finish it off.

Send yourself a steady stream of affirmations. An affirmation is a phrase or sentence that sends strong, positive statements to you about yourself, such as, I am a capable person, or my joints are strong and flexible.

Visualise health and healing. Add mental pictures that support your positive affirmations.

Become a cheerleader for your immune system. Talk to it and encourage it to be strong and keep fighting.

Open yourself to humour, friendship, and love.

Positive emotions strengthen the immune system. Fortunately, almost anything that makes you feel good about yourself helps you stay healthy.

Laugh. A little humour makes life richer and healthier. Laughter increases creativity, reduces pain, and speeds healing. Keep an emergency laughter kit of funny videotapes, jokes, cartoons, and photographs. Put it with your first –aid supplies and keep it well stocked.

Seek out friends. Friends are vital to good health. Close social ties help you recover more quickly from illness and reduce your risk of developing diseases ranging from arthritis to depression.

Volunteer. People who volunteer live longer and enjoy life more than those who do not. By helping others, we help ourselves.

Plant a plant and pet a pet. Plants and pets can be highly therapeutic. When you stroke an animal, blood pressure goes down and your heart rate slows. Animals and plants help us feel needed.

Appeal to the spirit. If you believe in a higher power, ask for support in your pursuit of healing. Faith, prayer, and spiritual beliefs can play an important role in recovering from an illness. Your sense of spiritual wellness can help you overcome personal trials and things you cannot change.

If it suits you, use spiritual images in visualisations, affirmations, and expectations about your health and your life.

Hardiness. Some people seem to have more protection from disease than others. Their immune systems appear to be more efficient. Researchers studying these hardy people have identified three personality factors that stand out.

1) Hard people have a strong commitment to self, work, family, and other values.

2) Hard people have a sense of control over their lives.

3) Hard people generally see change in their lives as a challenge rather than a threat.

Trust Marandure, is a Naturopathic practitioner based in Bulawayo. He can be contacted on 0772 482 382.