THE ROLE OF POSITIVE THINKING

The Physical Aspect

The effect of a positive attitude in increasing the body's immunological response in overcoming disease can be observed in alterations in serum proteins, antibody production, and the total immune response of the organism. Patients should be advised that their bodies need the help and stimulation of positive attitudes and optimistic thoughts.

The patient's co-operative effort in taking responsibility for his diet and hygiene, for taking the Vitamin B-17 tablets and the enzymes, for follow-up diagnostic tests, and for acting positively on his own behalf is essential to the most complete controlling possible of his cancer. If the patient's attitude is uncooperative or negative with the continued use of tobacco, cigarettes, or exposure to known occupational carcinogenic environment, the patient should be dealt with in a forthright manner. Negative attitudes should be thoroughly discouraged.

The negativism associated with the majority of cancer patients prior to Vitamin B-17 therapy is one of the corrections, which may be brought about in the course of this therapy. Persistent negative attitude and failure to improve may indicate that the dosage is too small or too infrequent.

The Psychological Aspect

"The mind, the emotions, and the attitude of a patient play a role in both the development of a disease, cancer included, and the response that a patient has to any form of treatment." (Air Force Major O. Carl Simonton, M.D.)

The onset of cancer may be correlated with major crises previously occurring at both social levels and deep personal levels of life experience, characteristically the loss of personal orientation or ego diminishment brought on by major disruptions such as occupational or social reversals, bereavement or deprivation, divorce. As such, cancer may appear in the self-defeating patient as "a form of socially acceptable suicide."

Self-defeating attitudes should be recognised by the physician, who may indicate to the patient that he is using his illness to further his personal psychological objectives, and this is why his thinking and behaviour remains negative in spite of objective gains of the therapy.

Patients (and their families) should also be encouraged to carry on or develop interests outside of their illness as indeed the majority of successful patients do, since with Vitamin B-17 therapy many are relieved of the continual reminder of cancer by the relief of pain and the reduction of other symptoms.

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