I recently had a conversation with my friend Ian MacDonald. He told me the story of a champion jockey who had been told he had cancer and had a short time to live. He was determined that this wasn't going to happen and he managed to get a much longer life than what had been predicted for him. He went on to win championships and seemed to have recovered his health. He did eventually relapse and died but he gained an additional twelve years. The question is, could I generate that kind of self-belief and beat this? How do you turn that on or am I far too rational to be able to do this? This discussion reminded me of a video interview I had seen between Richard Dawkins and Nicholas Humphrey. This video puts a whole new complexion on my condition and the possibility of me being able to cure myself.
I let my friend Donald see the video and the next day he sent me this link to a BBC news item:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7813072.stm
(Here is a PDF version.)
The point with this is that it seems to be that the brain is controlling this process. The brain has decided for some reason to send signals to create these enzymes that create these environments where the cancer can spread to. Does the brain also control the initial start and growth of the cancer? It would then follow that my brain could also stop doing these destructive things and instruct my immune system to cure the cancer.
How can I control my brain to do this though? Might a more rational person like myself be less able to do this?
I am going to see a cancer specialist tomorrow. He will likely give me lots of statistics. If I logically work out from these what my chances of survival are I might come to the conlusion that I don't have a reasonable chance and convince myself of this. It may then be much more difficult to put myself into the frame of mind where I can convince myself and instruct my brain to cure myself.
Dr Hartung, in conversation repeated often "they will be able to give you statistics, if you would like that". It is the "if you would like that" part that seemed at the time strange to me: of course I want to have all the possible information. Maybe he was suggesting that sometimes it is best not to know all the statistics.
It would be ironic if it is my rational way of thinking about things that kills me.
Article by Nicholas Humphrey on the placebo effect.