Messenger of the Lord

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.” ¹⁴⁹ 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.” ¹⁵⁰ 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.” ¹⁵¹ 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. ¹⁵² 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. ¹⁵³ MOL 329.5

But tobacco smokers also show high death rates from coronary artery disease. ¹⁵⁴ Indeed, “those who acquire and indulge the unnatural appetite for tobacco, do this at the expense of health.” ¹⁵⁵ 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.” ¹⁵⁶ 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. ¹⁵⁷ 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. ¹⁵⁸ 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. ¹⁵⁹ Scientific research beginning in the 1950s has validated this warning, including the negative effects of smoking and caffeine consumption on the fetus. ¹⁶⁰ During pregnancy even “aspirin should be taken only in small amounts and not over long periods of time.” ¹⁶¹ 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.” ¹⁶² 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.” ¹⁶³ 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.” ¹⁶⁴ 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.” ¹⁶⁵ 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.” ¹⁶⁶ 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.” ¹⁶⁷ 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.” ¹⁶⁸ 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 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.” ¹⁷⁰ 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.” ¹⁷¹ 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.” ¹⁷² 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.” ¹⁷³ 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.” ¹⁷⁴ 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.” ¹⁷⁵ 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. ¹⁷⁶ 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.” 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.” ¹⁷⁸ 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.” ¹⁷⁹ 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.” ¹⁸⁰ 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.” ¹⁸¹ 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.” ¹⁸² 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.” ¹⁸³ 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.’” ¹⁸⁴ MOL 333.8