Super Healing

By Julie K. Silver, M.D – You may not know it, but your body has an amazing ability to repair itself after serious illness or injury. A Harvard doc—and former cancer patient—reveals the secrets to tapping into your own powers of recovery.

n the fall of 2006, Arlene and David Rubin were flying home to Boston after a vacation in northern California wine country. But somewhere over the Midwest, Arlene looked up from her magazine and got the shock of her life. Her 80-year-old husband’s eyes were rolling around in his head, his skin was purple, and his tongue was blue.

“I’ve never seen anyone that color before. It was very scary,” Arlene recalls. “I yelled, ‘David, David, David!’ but he didn’t answer. Then I yelled, ‘Help!’ and the flight attendant told me, ‘Get out of the way!’”

David’s heart had stopped completely. But three strangers were determined to save his life. A doctor and a nurse who were passengers worked side by side with a flight attendant trained to use an automated external defibrillator. The pilot made an emergency landing in Milwaukee, where David underwent open-heart surgery.

Today David has returned to his work as a highly successful Boston real-estate developer. Remarkably, he was able not only to survive that life-threatening episode but, just as important, to heal from it and regain his strength.

How did he do it? His body’s natural healing processes did most of the work. Each of us possesses a surprising capacity to bounce back from illness and injury, under the right conditions.

Continue to full story

A list of related entries: