Use the mind-body connection to promote peace of mind
By Cheryl A. Sweet
Inhaling deeply, Laura Sereyko soaked in the scenery from her rural Maine porch. Snuggling in a wooden swing overlooking Lake Escutarsis, she delighted in a hovering hummingbird and the poignant perfume of pines. She closed her eyes, breathed big, and began transporting herself towards total tranquility. "I’m flying over the lake like a bird, guiding myself with my arms," Laura related. "Suddenly, a wand appears and starts to circle my body with white light - good cells - beginning with my head, all the way down to my feet. Out of my feet come colored lights - bad cancer cells. I may repeat this up to 10 times. After it’s over, I take several really deep breaths and always feel relaxed."
Across the country in Montana, Sherry Scoffield painted her own picture. "I visualized my family and home, two things that were important to me. I very much wanted to live to be part of my children getting married and meeting grandchildren. So I formed those positive thoughts in my mind," she said.
Guided imagery teaches patients to use positive mental images to impact their mind and body. Science supports such sentiments. A review of 46 studies conducted from 1966 to 1998 by the American Cancer Society found that guided imagery was effective in managing stress, anxiety, depression, pain, and the side effects of chemotherapy. A recent randomized clinical trial involving women with early stage breast cancer found guided imagery was also useful for easing anxiety related to radiation, including fears about the equipment, surgical pain, and recurrence of cancer. Although one uncontrolled, exploratory study suggested that guided imagery can also increase survival rates for people with cancer, there is no scientific evidence this technique can cure cancer.
Today, both women are thriving. "I feel in control of the cancer and experience an increase in well-being with each mindbody therapy I do," said Laura, who is currently receiving lung cancer treatment.
Sherry also has good reason to celebrate: She recently passed an eight-year, cancer-free milestone. Since completing treatment for endometrial cancer in 2000, she has been teaching adult cancer education classes in her community. Her main message: Cancer can be conquered by combining conventional treatment with mind-body medicine.
Amid mounting evidence that links stress to a lengthening list of chronic conditions, scientists are increasingly suggesting that stress-management techniques, combined with conventional cancer therapies, can fuel physical and emotional cancer healing.
In one recent study strengthening the stress-cancer connection, scientists from Wake Forest University School of Medicine found the stress hormone, epinephrine, causes changes in prostate and breast cancer cells that may make them resistant to cell death. Emotional stress may not only contribute to cancer development, but may also reduce the effectiveness of cancer treatments, the researchers reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
"I think stress management is a very critical part of cancer treatment," said Katherine Puckett, MS, MSW, LC SW, who is the national director of Mind-Body Medicine at Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTC A). However, she cautions that "patients shouldn’t blame themselves for having cancer. It’s our nature to make meaning of things, including why we got sick. As far as we know, the contributing factors of cancer are complex, and stress is just one likely component."
In addition to guided imagery, other techniques for beating stress can include meditation, hypnosis, laughter therapy, biofeedback, qigong, music therapy, tai chi, Reiki therapy, aromatherapy, and breathing techniques to calm both body and mind.
"I learned there’s much more to cancer treatment than just conventional medicine," Sherry said. "Mind-body medicine is very beneficial to healing by letting your body do its own work."
Psychotherapy can also play a powerful stress-management role. "Just offering tools to someone often isn’t enough," Puckett explained. "In a counseling relationship, a person has an opportunity to be listened to and taken seriously in a way that many people never have, and it is an opportunity to really get to know oneself. Somebody might then be more likely to take advantage of some of the tools we offer. They’ll have an understanding of how using those tools fit into their overall efforts to take better care of themselves by managing their stress."
"I totally believe that to overcome cancer, you have to address both the body and mind - and I have no doubt now that I’m going to beat this," Laura said.
This article is from the summer edition of Cancer Fighter Thrive Magazine. To learn more or subscribe, please visit cfthrive.com.
