The Science/Practice Gap
There is a growing mountain of scientific evidence that stress and emotional trauma play a key role in the development of chronic disease. However, western doctors continue to refuse to acknowledge this, and incorporate these findings into their practice when treating patients. This is “The Science/Practice Gap.” It is one of the main topics discussed in Gabor Maté’s new book, “The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, & Healing in a Toxic Culture.”
Unfortunately, Maté predicts that change in this area is going to take a long time. That puts the responsibility for addressing stress and trauma on our shoulders, as individuals. This is a subject that is (literally) near and dear to my heart–since I dropped at age 53 from a near-fatal heart attack, in which my heart stopped beating for over 40 minutes. Perhaps, as the three-year anniversary of this experience is approaching, I am revisiting all this stuff in my mind, body, and spirit–and Maté’s book has kicked me into overdrive.
As my brain started to clear up in the week after my heart attack, I had frequent consultations with cardiologists that could give me little information about why I might have had this heart attack. My profile was that of an extremely healthy and fit man of my age. I trained six times per week, I had been vegetarian or vegan for 15 years–and I ate a well-balanced whole food diet. All of these elements should have been protective to the development of heart disease. The only risk factor they could point to was that my father had a history of heart disease. Somehow, that just didn’t ring true to me–”Your Dad had it, so you’re screwed.”
Not one cardiologist asked me about stress in my life.
I didn’t realize it at the time–but I was lost in The Science/Practice Gap. The truth, however, is out there (to quote the X-Files) and I began searching for it. I became my own detective, investigating what may have led to my heart attack. I wanted to have something concrete to work on in my life, to make sure this didn’t happen again. And, I was not alone (to reference another Sci-Fi quote).
As Maté writes in his book, a life-threatening disease can wake you up. There are many books written by chronic disease sufferers who were able to heal themselves when they finally discovered that working through their own trauma and creating new patterns of behavior was the key to their recoveries. One such story, included in Maté’s book, is that of Anita Moorjani (another hero of mine) who had stage four lymphoma, and was experiencing organ failure–when she had a vivid near-death experience. She returned to consciousness afterward, with the deep knowing that her journey was to heal from her past traumas and truly embody her authentic self by accepting and loving herself exactly as she was. Within a couple of months, all traces of cancer were gone from her body.
Stories like this one, and many others, really spoke to me and made me realize that I had my own traumas I had to work through–and that I was leading a very stressful life without any healthy tools to deal with that stress. This way of looking at things was also very empowering to me. I was no longer a passive victim of genetic misfortune. There was actually something I could do to change my relationship to myself, and the way I was in the world–and the result could be a halting of the disease processes in my body.
Even this dreaded genetic flaw I allegedly have–the inherited heart disease from my father–Maté has a different take on. He believes that it wasn’t the heart disease I genetically inherited from my Dad–it was his way of handling (or not handling) stress and suppressed anger. Oooo. That really hit home. I learned how to ignore stress and suppress anger from my Dad, there’s no doubt in my mind about it.
So does this mean that our chronic diseases are all our faults? Maté asserts that it is not our fault–it is not even the fault of our parents–they probably did what they did unconsciously and with good intentions. But while it’s not our fault, we are responsible now for changing the situation.
You don’t have to wait until some serious health incident occurs in your life, and please don’t. We can all take a look at our lives and recognize pretty quickly where we need some work. Now is the time to work through childhood traumas. Now is the time to learn how to mitigate stress in your life. Now is the time for self-care, self-love, and self-acceptance.
A long and healthy life hangs in the balance.
Until next time
Scott