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Messenger of the Lord

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    Contributing Causes of Cancer

    Associated factors with aging: Note Ellen White’s interesting comment in 1864 regarding how aging may affect certain factors that stimulate latent cancer germs: “Cancerous humor [bodily fluid] which would lay [lie] dormant in the system [throughout] their lifetime, is inflamed, and commences its eating, destructive work.” 149Appeal to Mothers, p. 27.MOL 329.2

    Drugs: Referring to a popular treatment for disease in the nineteenth century, Ellen White declared: “This is the effect of calomel .... It inflames the joints, and often sends rottenness into the bones. It frequently manifests itself in tumors, ulcers, and cancers, years after it has been introduced into the system.” 150Selected Messages 2:449.MOL 329.3

    Tobacco: In 1864 Mrs. White added her voice to the few in her day who had recognized that tobacco is a “poison of the most deceitful and malignant kind ... a slow poison.” 151The Ministry of Healing, 327, 328.MOL 329.4

    Among the many cancers caused by smoking, lung cancer among ex-servicemen became prevalent in the mid-1930s in the United States as a direct result of heavy smoking during World War I. It takes about twenty years for cancer-producing results to become obvious. Before the 1930s, cancer of the lung was an extremely rare disease. In 1995, in the United States alone, 418,000 deaths were caused by smoking. 152Statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cited in USA Today, Oct. 29, 1996. Unless the present trend is reversed, it is expected that by the year 2025, ten million people will die annually as a consequence of smoking tobacco. 153Health Benefits of Smoking Cessation, A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1990.MOL 329.5

    But tobacco smokers also show high death rates from coronary artery disease. 154“Deaths from coronary heart disease related to cigarette smoking exceed those for lung cancer threefold.... The evidence linking cigarette smoking to CHD [coronary heart disease] is formidable and meets the criteria for an etiological relationship.... Heavy smoking nearly doubles cardiovascular and total mortality under 65. In men, cigarette smoking is significantly related to cardiovascular coronary and total mortality even beyond age 65.” “Special Report: Inter-Society Commission for Heart Disease Resources,” Circulation, July, 1984, 70:176A, 177A. Indeed, “those who acquire and indulge the unnatural appetite for tobacco, do this at the expense of health.” 155The Signs of the Times, January 6, 1876.MOL 330.1

    Although the major risk factor for lung cancer is tobacco, diet also affects risk. But a “greater consumption of vegetables, fruits, or both together has also been associated with a lower risk of lung cancer.... Fruits and vegetables reduce cancer risk whether or not people smoke.” 156CA /1996, p. 326.MOL 330.2

    Parental smoking is a significant factor in their children’s health, even their death. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, say that “more young children are killed by parental smoking than by all unintentional injuries combined.” They attribute 2,800 deaths to low birth weight caused by mothers who smoke during pregnancy. Another 2,000 deaths are due to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) caused by secondhand smoke; another 1,000 are caused by asthma. The same research said that an additional 5.4 million children suffer nonfatal asthma and ear infections triggered by parents’ smoking, costing an estimated $4.6 billion annually to treat. 157Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, July, 1997.MOL 330.3

    Further research indicates that pregnant women who smoke more than ten cigarettes a day run the risk of giving birth to a child who will develop “conduct disorder,” defined as “serious” antisocial behavior, for six months or more. Boys whose mothers smoked during pregnancy were 4.4 times more likely to engage in antisocial activities, including lying, stealing, arson, vandalism, or cruelty than boys whose mothers did not smoke or smoked fewer than ten cigarettes a day. Studies suggest that smoking causes changes in a child’s brain functioning. 158Archives of General Psychiatry, July, 1997.MOL 330.4

    Drugs and birth defects. In 1865 Mrs. White linked birth defects with poisonous drugs administered by physicians. In 1890 she warned that thousands “born deaf, blind, diseased, or idiotic” were casualties of their parents’ indulgences in alcoholic beverages. 159Health or How to Live, No. 3, p. 51; Patriarchs and Prophets, 561. Scientific research beginning in the 1950s has validated this warning, including the negative effects of smoking and caffeine consumption on the fetus. 160The Signs of the Times, October 27, 1958; Saturday Evening Post, Aug. 12, 1967. Fetal alcohol syndrome rises with the risk of alcohol from less than one ounce in any one day with little risk to 1-2 ounces—10%, five ounces—50%, more than five ounces, 75% risk.—Journal of Health Education, Jan./Feb. 1993, pp. 22-26. Moderate alcohol consumption (3 drinks per week) in women showed an odds ratio of low birth weight to be 2.6 which represented a 143 gram decrease in birth weight.—Epidemiology, 1995, 6:591-597. During pregnancy even “aspirin should be taken only in small amounts and not over long periods of time.” 161Robert F. Chinnock, M. D., Life and Health, December, 1964.MOL 330.5

    Physical activity for the sick and the convalescent. In the 1860s, bed-rest and the rest-cure were standard recuperative procedures and remained so into the mid-twentieth century. Contrary to conventional medical practice, Ellen White declared in 1867 that she had been frequently “shown that the sick should be taught that it is wrong to suspend all physical labor in order to regain health.... To suspend activity in order to regain health, is a great error.” Three years later: “If invalids would recover health, they should not discontinue physical exercise; for they will thus increase muscular weakness and general debility.” Further, “the blood is not enabled to expel the impurities as it would if active circulation were induced by exercise.” 162Testimonies for the Church 1:555; vol. 2, p. 529.MOL 330.6

    Mervyn G. Hardinge, M.D., one-time Dean, School of Health, Loma Linda University, reviewed this amazing 180-degree turn in medical practice. “The ‘rest cures’ of the recent past have today given way to programs of occupational and educational therapy.” 163The Review and Herald, November 3, 1960.MOL 330.7

    Hypnosis and medical practice. Ellen White’s condemnation of hypnotism has been supported by many modern psychiatric practitioners—and ridiculed by others. In speaking to a physician in 1901, she said: “No man or woman should exercise his or her will to control the senses or reason of another, so that the mind of the person is rendered passively subject to the will of the one who is exercising the control. This science [hypnotherapy] may appear to be something beautiful, but it is a science which you are in no case to handle.... Temporary relief may be felt, but the mind of the one thus controlled is never again so strong and reliable.” 164Medical Ministry, 111-116; Selected Messages 2:349-350.MOL 330.8

    In reference to the use of hypnotism in dentistry, two dentists authored an article entitled, “Psychological Evaluation of Hypnosis in Dentistry,” in which they concluded: “In [a] study of the personality characteristics of dentists who employ hypnosis in their practice, the subjects consisted of 34 dentists.... The results indicated that most well-adjusted dentists do not tend to use hypnosis....MOL 331.1

    “The vast majority of practicing dentists feel it is possible to render adequate service without employing hypnosis.... Hypnosis, in general, is not held in high esteem by the dental profession....MOL 331.2

    “Dentists who are well-adjusted, who are relatively satisfied with themselves, and who obtain satisfaction from the conventional practice of their profession do not tend to use hypnosis or to become interested in its use. It is as if they do not need such an additional and unusual source of gratification.” 165Loren R. Borland, D.D.S., and Sidney Epstein, D.D.S., Journal of the American Dental Association, Jan., 1961, pp. 54-64.MOL 331.3

    Mind-body relationships. In 1867 Ellen White linked the “sickness of body and mind to nearly all its dissatisfied feelings and discontented repinings.” 166Testimonies for the Church 1:566. In 1872 she urged physicians to “cure the body through the mind,” because “a great deal of the sickness which afflicts humanity has its origin in the mind and can only be cured by restoring the mind to health.... Heart sickness makes many dyspeptics, for mental trouble has a paralyzing influence upon the digestive organs.” 167Testimonies for the Church 3:184.MOL 331.4

    In 1905 Mrs. White expanded these psychosomatic concepts in noting that “disease is sometimes produced, and is often greatly aggravated, by the imagination.... Many die of disease, the cause of which is wholly imaginary.” 168The Ministry of Healing, 241.MOL 331.5

    Ancient medical science attested that the mind and body cannot be separated. But this truth has not always been translated into medical practice. In the latter half of the twentieth century, medical research generally affirmed not only that health and happiness are intertwined but that faulty emotional patterns can actually cause disease. 169“The pathways along which the human mind makes its registrations on physiology are being probed more deeply then ever before. A biology of the emo-tions is coming into view.... These facts fit in with the last article written by the late Franz Ingelfinger as editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, in which physicians were reminded that 85 percent of human illnesses are within the reach of the body’s own healing system. Hence the importance of the expanding knowledge about the way mind and body can collaborate in meeting serious challenges.” Norman Cousins, Head First: The Biology of Hope, (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1989), pp. 37, 38. Other books by Norman Cousins that set forth the relationship between the mind and physical healing are: The Healing Heart (New York: Avon Books, 1984) and Anatomy of an Illness (New York: W. W. Norton, 1979).MOL 331.6

    In 1993 psychiatrist George F. Solomon, of the University of California at Los Angeles, said: “The mind and body cannot be separated. The mind is the brain, and the brain is part of the body. The brain regulates and influences many physiological functions, including immunity. Mental and physical well-being are inextricably intertwined.” Dr. Solomon coined the term “psychoimmunology” in 1964 (a term that was expanded to “psychoneuroimmunology” [PNI] by Robert Ader). After twenty-five years of studying the biological mechanisms by which emotions and attitudes affect one’s resistance to disease, Solomon said, “We have studied people with a variety of illnesses, and people with very good coping skills tend to have a greater speed of recovery.” 170Beth Baker, “Scientists finding more evidence of link between mind and health,” AARP Bulletin, Oct. 1993. See “Faith and Healing,” Time, June 24, 1996, pp. 58-68.MOL 331.7

    In 1995, Healing and The Mind, a remarkable book by Bill Moyers based on the television series with the same title, was devoted to two important questions: “How do thoughts and feelings influence health? How is healing related to the mind?” Author Bill Moyers and his team directed these questions to physicians in large public hospitals and small community clinics. They talked with people in stress reduction clinics and therapeutic support groups. They explored these questions with scientists on the frontier of mind/body research. Their answers were remarkably consistent: the mind controls the body for good or ill. Moyers concluded that “talking with different doctors during this journey, I realize that we do need a new medical paradigm that goes beyond ‘body parts’ medicine, and not only for the patient’s sake. At a time when the cost of health care is skyrocketing, the potential economic impact of mind/body medicine is considerable.” Moyer quoted Eric J. Cassell approvingly when Cassell wrote that healing powers “consist only in and no more than in allowing, causing, or bringing to bear those things or forces for getting better (whatever they may be) that already exist in the patient.” 171Bill Moyers, Healing and The Mind (New York: Double-day, 1995), p. 5.MOL 331.8

    Dean Ornish, in an extended interview that flowed from Ornish’s ground-breaking research on reversing arteriosclerosis through non-invasive methods such as diet, exercise, and stress-reduction, said: “Taking into account cholesterol, blood pressure, smoking, genetics, and all of the other known risk factors still explains only about half of the heart disease we see. Clearly, something else is going on. My clinical experience, as well as what we’re showing in our research, suggests that psychological, emotional, and even spiritual factors are important, not only in terms of how they affect our behaviors, like diet and exercise, but also in more direct ways.” 172The Ministry of Healing, 102. Ornish reviewed his landmark research findings in Hospital Practice, May 15, 1991: “By combining a strict low-fat vegetarian diet, moderate aerobic exercise, abstinence from smoking, and stress management training,” his study group showed “measurable regression of disease in patients with severe coronary atherosclerosis (with less than 12 mg a day of dietary cholesterol 82% of the patients showed regression of coronary atherosclerosis).” Pages 123-132.MOL 332.1

    Electrical currents in brain and nervous system. In 1934 members of the Mayo Clinic staff in Rochester, Minnesota, were discussing the electrical action of the brain. In 1962 Dr. Ernest Weber, president of Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, New York, wrote that he knew of no greater modern wonder than the discovery of “electromagnetic waves.”MOL 332.2

    In 1954 an article in The Scientific American reviewed the developing science of electromagnetic waves: “Twenty-five years ago [1929] Hans Berger, a German psychiatrist, ... began to publish some strange little pictures consisting of nothing but wavy lines. They should have caused great excitement among his colleagues, because he claimed that they showed the electrical activity of the human brain. But in fact no one took them seriously. For several years no one even bothered to repeat his experiments.... In the quarter of a century since then the study of his little wavy lines has grown into a new department of science called electroencephalography. Today several hundred laboratories in the United States and a similar number in Europe are recording and interpreting charts of the electrical discharges of human brains. Their total annual output of charts would girdle the earth.” 173Scientific American, June, 1954, p. 54.MOL 332.3

    Ellen White wrote in 1869: “Whatever disturbs the circulation of the electric currents in the nervous system lessens the strength of the vital powers; and the result is a deadening of the sensibilities of the mind.” Three years later she declared: “This class [physical laborers who use the brain powers very little] fall more readily if attacked by disease; the system is vitalized by the electrical force of the brain to resist disease.” 174Testimonies for the Church 2:347; 157. “The brain is the capital of the body, the seat of all the nervous forces and of mental action. The nerves proceeding from the brain control the body. By the brain nerves, mental impressions are conveyed to all the nerves of the body as by telegraph wires; and they control the vital action of every part of the system. All the organs of motion are governed by the communications they receive from the brain.” Testimonies for the Church 3:69.MOL 332.4

    In 1903 she added: “The influence of the mind on the body, as well as of the body on the mind, should be emphasized. The electric power of the brain, promoted by mental activity, vitalizes the whole system, and is thus an invaluable aid in resisting disease. This should be made plain. The power of the will and the importance of self-control, both in the preservation and in the recovery of health, the depressing and even ruinous effect of anger, discontent, selfishness, or impurity, and, on the other hand, the marvelous life-giving power to be found in cheerfulness, unselfishness, gratitude, should also be shown.” 175Education, 197. “The brain nerves that connect with the whole system are the medium through which heaven communicates with man, and affects the inmost life. Whatever hinders the circulation of the electric current in the nervous system, thus weakening the vital powers and lessening mental susceptibility, makes it more difficult to arouse the moral nature.” Education, 209.MOL 332.5

    Caution in the use of the X-ray. Ellen White not only endorsed the proper use of the X-ray, she permitted X-ray treatment for a black spot on her forehead. 176Selected Messages 2:303.MOL 332.6

    But she sounded an early warning about overexposure in X-ray therapy. Speaking in regard to new “electrical appliances” being installed in the Paradise Valley Sanitarium, she said: “I was instructed that some connected with the institution were introducing things for the treatment of the sick that were not safe. The application of some of these electrical treatments would involve the patient in serious difficulties, imperiling life.... I have been instructed that the X-ray is not the great blessing that some suppose it to be. If used unwisely it may do much harm. The results of some of the electrical treatments are similar to the results of using stimulants. There is a weakness that follows.” 177Loma Linda Messages, 177.MOL 332.7

    Through the years, the effects of excessive X-ray radiation in the treatment of disease have become well known—tissue breakdown with the potential risk of anemia, leukemia, cataract formation, and shortening of life. But when used wisely, the positive results of X-ray diagnostics and treatment are incalculable.MOL 332.8

    Prenatal influences. From 1865 to her last years, Ellen White emphasized the various facets of prenatal influences. Yet, not until the 1950s was this concept given credibility in scientific circles. Since then, a tidal wave of concurrence has flooded the medical world.MOL 333.1

    In 1865 Mrs. White wrote: “The irritability, nervousness, and despondency, manifested by the mother, will mark the character of her child. In past generations, if mothers had informed themselves in regard to the laws of their being, they would have understood that their constitutional strength, as well as the tone of their morals, and their mental faculties, would in a great measure be represented in their offspring.” 178Selected Messages 2:431. “The idea that women, because of their special condition, may let the appetite run riot is a mistake based on custom, but not on sound sense.... If ever there is need of simplicity of diet and special care as to the quality of food eaten, it is in this important period. Women who possess principle, and who are well instructed, will not depart from simplicity of diet at this time of all others.... If she chooses to eat as she pleases and what she may fancy, irrespective of consequences, she will bear the penalty, but not alone. Her innocent child must suffer because of her indiscretion.”—The Adventist Home, 257, 258 (1870); see also The Ministry of Healing, 372, 373.MOL 333.2

    In 1954 Ashley Montagu wrote: “There is now sufficient evidence from many sources to indicate that the unborn child can be variously affected by physical changes in the mother, and that although a woman cannot ‘mark’ her baby by seeing something unpleasant before he is born, nor make him a poet by reading Keats and Shelley during her pregnancy, there are ways in which she definitely can influence his behavior pattern. It is largely up to her, and to those surrounding her during her pregnancy, whether her infant will be born a happy, healthy, sweet-tempered individual or an ill-adjusted neurotic.” 179Ladies Home Journal, Feb., 1954, p. 43.MOL 333.3

    Corroborating the research of many, Leland H. Scott wrote in 1967: “There is a growing evidence that chemical irregularities in the mother’s blood brought about by endocrine imbalance, dietary deficiencies, or ill health may have serious effects. Maternal malnutrition often results in the unborn child being deprived of essential vitamins or nutrients necessary for its normal growth and health. Childhood abnormalities, such as rickets, nervous instability, epilepsy, and cerebral palsy, have been found to result from serious malnutrition in the mother at certain points during the period of pregnancy.” 180Child Development: An Individual Longitudinal Approach (New York: Holt, Rinehard and Winston, Inc., 1967), pp. 371, 372.MOL 333.4

    First years of a child’s life. Tightly connected with the concept of prenatal influences is the belief that the first few years of a child’s life set the life course. In 1881 Ellen White wrote that the “parents’ work must begin with the child in its infancy.” 181Child Guidance, 193; “It is during the first years of a child’s life that his mind is most susceptible to impressions either good or evil. During these years decided progress is made in either a right direction or a wrong one.” Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 132.MOL 333.5

    More precisely, parents should “properly discipline ... children during the first three years of their lives. Do not allow them to form their wishes and desires. The mother must be mind for her child. The first three years is the time in which to bend the tiny twig.” 182Child Guidance, 194.MOL 333.6

    In the overall training of the child, in areas beyond discipline, Ellen White is emphatic: “Too much importance cannot be placed on the early training of children. The lessons that the child learns during the first seven years of life have more to do with forming his character than all that it learns in future years.” 183Child Guidance, 193.MOL 333.7

    The importance of a child’s first three years of learning was stressed in 1997 by a White House panel of experts, as reported in The Washington Post. The scientists and child development specialists presented “compelling new research showing that a child’s language, thinking and emotional health are largely formed before age 3.... Not only are most brain synapses—connections between brain cells—formed before age 3, the report said, ‘those synapses that have been activated many times by repeated early experience tend to become permanent; the synapses that are not used tend to become eliminated.’” 184The Washington Post, April 18, 1997, p. 3.MOL 333.8

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