Dr. Dodge: Passion for Health

BE WELL

“Enjoy Vibrant Life and Health” 

I have just returned from Zimbabwe, and am making it the focus of my letter this month. The first part of the letter is a summary of what our team did and saw in Zimbabwe. The latter part will conclude with some observations about an unexpected, but vitally important lesson about life and health!

Zimbabwe is a country full of contrasts and paradoxes. We visited it in July and August as members of a Volunteer-in-Mission team to help establish a Skills Training Center in a village twelve miles south of Mutare. Being in Zimbabwe was wonderful, even though it made me acutely aware of the many serious problems people face there today.

Our mission was successful in that we helped erect a brick classroom building that is the nucleus of the center. Consisting of four large classrooms and a kitchen/cafeteria, it will offer a good venue for teaching. Roofing was completed on the last workday - a cause for major celebration! That’s not an over-statement, though it is a simple roof. 

The difficulties encountered in the building process say a lot about problems confronting Zimbabwe. The foundation was poured two years ago. The walls were also partially raised, but then the entire project floundered because of the disintegrating economy.

Zimbabwe’s economy began unraveling after the government imposed “Land Reform” on the country’s farmland a few years ago, turning farms over to politically affiliated people who knew little about farming. Agricultural production, once the mainstay of the economy, fell dramatically as the economy spiraled out of control. 

With economic chaos prevailing throughout 2007 and 2008, most businesses came to a virtual halt. Basic staples became almost unobtainable and the country’s infrastructure, once among the best in Africa, deteriorated severely. The political situation also became  more untenable. Many people fled to neighboring countries to find work, or as refugees.

So, what’s to celebrate in such an environment? The answer is that, in spite of it’s great problems and challenges, hope is still alive in Zimbabwe. Fragile though it is, the unity government established in February has generated cautious optimism. The economy, although still very weak, has stabilized, and runaway inflation is no longer a problem. Business is slowly growing as people are able to actually plan project costs and profits.

However, it’s in the faces of people, especially in rural areas and schools, that one can best see hope personified. We visited a primary school with over one thousand students in a rural area, and the joyous singing with which they greeted us was heart-warming. Similar scenarios took place in various churches that we visited. In spite of poverty and limited opportunities, hope and joy are beautifully expressed through their vibrant songs.

There is reason for cautious hope in Zimbabwe. When the tenuous political situation is eventually resolved, there is good potential for Zimbabwe. Its forested mountains, water resources, and mineral deposits are great natural resources. Its farmlands have been very productive, and can become so again. Above all, its people are talented and hard-working, and if given the chance, will take good advantage of appropriate opportunities.

Clearly, in offering villagers a variety of training skills, the Skills Training Center will be offering a valuable service. Yet, it is more than a place to teach skills, for it has already become a symbol of hope. In a place where great poverty and hardship reign, Zimbabwe taught me this year how powerful hope is as a force for good. That we were welcomed as agents of hope was both humbling and exhilarating! 

Is hope really that potent? The answer is an unequivocal “Yes!” Hope is powerful. Zimbabwe itself provides strong evidence of this. In spite of a history of oppression, as well as more recent political and economic devastation, hope is emerging across the land like tender new grass after extensive wildfires. 

However, it is not only in a sociological or psychological sense that hope is important. It has also been found to have a major impact on physical health. A number of books by top experts have been written on this subject in recent years. Scientist Dr. Candace Pert has explained most clearly how emotions like hope cause physical change in the body.

“Virtually every cell in the body is studded with thousands of tiny structures called receptors. Like the sense organs, the job of receptors is to pick up signals coming at them... Once the receptors receive a signal, the information is transferred deep within the cell’s interior, where tiny engines roar into action and initiate key processes. 

“The signal comes from other cells and is carried by a juice that we call an informational substance... You know these juices as hormones, neurotransmitters, and peptides, and we scientists refer to all three with one word: ligand. This term is from ligare, a Latin word meaning “to bind,” and is used because of the way that the substances latch on so tightly to the cell’s surface receptors.

“Information-carrying ligands are responsible for ninety-eight percent of all data transfer in body and brain. The remaining two percent of communication takes place in the synapse, between brain cells firing and releasing neurotransmitters across a gap to hit receptors on the other side.

“Emotions are the link between the physical and nonphysical states of consciousness, and the receptors on every cell are where this happens! The attracting vibration is the emotion, and the connection - peptide to receptor - is the manifestation of the feeling in the physical world... Our physical bodies [are] changed by the emotions we experience.”

I will conclude this letter with two brief commentaries. First, notice what a small percent of overall communication takes place in the brain: only two percent! That’s a critical two percent, to be sure, but an overwhelming amount of data is handled by the rest of the body. That is why, in fact, trillions of vital ongoing processes can operate in our bodies simultaneously without our conscious awareness or management. If our lives depended on managing all this with our brains consciously, we would not survive. That is also why Candace Pert asserts, “Your body is your subconscious mind.”

Secondly, none of this is conjecture, even though it is not yet fully integrated into our standard medical model. As another scientist has stated: “We don’t just believe, we know that thoughts and emotions have a tremendous impact on our health, probably greater than anything else, and that the biochemistry of hope and joy is the biochemistry of health.”

So, dear friends, it is immensely worthwhile to nourish hope in our lives and our communities. For the sake of others, and also for your own well-being, be an agent of hope whenever possible. St. Paul wrote: “Now abides faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” True, but hope comes a very close second!

Be Well,

Ed Dodge, MD