We have all experienced healing of a cut or abrasion, or maybe even a broken bone. We also get over our common cold, or sore throat, sometimes with the help of medication. But what about more serious conditions like strokes or atherosclerosis? Is it possible for these conditions to heal?
Years ago I was taught that nerve healing would cease after 18 months. However a phenomenon called neuroplasticity has been discovered, whereby the brain is able to re-wire by creating new nerve pathways. The old dictum of 18 months limit to neurological regeneration has been scrapped.
The liver has an amazing ability to regenerate from as little as 10% of its original form after a surgical insult. However, that does not mean it cannot fail and result in death if it is persistently abused.
Even damaged blood vessels can be restored. In 1999, Dr Dean Ornish first published his landmark study in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association which showed the potential of lifestyle behaviours to not only restore function in narrowed coronary arteries from atherosclerosis, without the use of medications or surgery, but that over the following year, these blood vessels began to open up. Within weeks, angina disappeared in the intervention group, whereas in those in the conventional coronary artery disease care group, angina persisted, and the arteries continued to narrow. The incidence of heart attacks over the next year were dramatically less in the intervention group.
What were these lifestyle behaviours that had such dramatic effect? Those in the intervention group were put onto a strict low-fat, whole food plant-based diet, together with regular gentle physical activity, and stress management techniques. Those in the control group were allowed the conventional American Heart Association dietary recommendations, and had no specific stress control intervention.
This same lifestyle based intervention has been shown to benefit a whole range of chronic diseases – obesity, diabetes type 2, auto-immune disease, high blood pressure, certain cancers and even early dementia. Such is the power of the body to heal, if we provide the right lifestyle behaviours that support the healing process.
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