As an Asheville Chiropractor and natural health care provider, I like to spend at least as much time studying health and healing as I do sickness and disease. One topic I find fascinating is a phenomenon often referred to as spontaneous remission or unexplained healing.
Spontaneous remission is generally defined as a disappearance, either complete or incomplete, of an illness, disease, or cancer with no medical treatment or other treatment that would be considered adequate to produce the resulting disappearance of the condition. There are a staggering number of documented cases of this type of healing in which, for no apparent or understandable reason, an illness, disease or cancer simply goes away.
When these healing events occur, the medical community’s response can vary. In some cases, doctors simply assume that the original laboratory tests were incorrect or that some other mistake in diagnosis was made. There are, however, unusual yet compelling accounts of gravely ill patients who regained, against seemingly hopeless odds, their health and function. There are even stories of patients who had been operated on, given up for hopeless, and were just waiting to die. Such patients reappeared, seemingly healthy years later, despite all medical odds.
What is the cause of miraculous healing? There have been studies that have focused on the situations that surround these remissions.
One of the most common factors linked with spontaneous remission is fever. There are many cases where a high or prolonged fever preceded a documented case of remission. It is possible that fever many stimulate the body’s immune system in such a way that it is actually therapeutic, serving as a line of defense beyond that with which we are already familiar.
Healing: Not always explained
Other links to these remissions are associated with the mind itself. The therapeutic effects of placebos, prayer, meditation and positive thinking are proving to be more than just coincidences. Consider some case examples documented in the book “Spontaneous Remission,” by Brendan O’Regan and Caryle Hirshberg.
In one study on placebos and the power of the mind, a group of people thought they were receiving experimental cancer treatment, but in fact were not. Their cancers improved, despite the lack of treatment.
A 1961 study documented a group of patients scheduled for heart surgery due to check pain. These patients were cut open and then simply sewn back up. They were told that they had undergone the full operation. Yet those in the experimental group who had received no corrective surgery reported the same results as those who actually received the heart surgery. The power of the mind is considered to be a large part of the explanation of such results.
We may not be able to fully explain or understand this phenomenon of spontaneous healing, but we can study the known or suspected components we associate with it. We can also feel honored, as we further study the immune system, the power of the mind and other factors associated with healing, to learn more about the body’s remarkable ability to restore function, health and vitality. Even in the face of seemingly impossible odds.
Asheville Chiropractor discusses spontaneous remission of back pain, neck pain shoulder pain, cancer, headache etc.
Chiropractors in Asheville serve the public with healing through the nervous system.
