Tapping the Healing Intelligence Within


People with chronic Lyme disease may deal with despair and frustration, yet Christine Horner, MD, believes there is reason for hope. “Everything is curable,” she says.

Nationally known surgeon, author and professional speaker, Dr. Horner is a popular women's health and wellness advocate. Her main focus is breast health, although as an MD she has studied countless diseases and health conditions.

In other traditions, it has been widely accepted for millenia that through dietary and lifestyle changes, people can cure themselves of all kinds of illness. “The Chinese tradition teaches that what we think of as disease is actually an imbalance of one sort or another, which must be found and brought back to balance,” says Dr. Horner.

Dr. Horner suggests that the American lifestyle and eating habits are recipes for many illnesses. I asked her to comment on the patient's role of self-responsibility in healing from chronic Lyme.

“Almost every disease is related somehow to our lifestyle and diet. When people change their habits, drop red meat, quit consuming sugar and adopt a plant-based diet, they begin to get well.” In addition, she offers, when people get plenty of rest and reduce the stress in their lives, many formerly serious conditions clear up naturally.  

“People don't realize how little conventionally-educated doctors really know about nutrition, and the healing properties of a plant-based diet. People don't know that their doctors often recommend avoiding herbal supplements simply because they're afraid of litigation. No one knows how many people are using supplements – they're not telling their doctors.”

Dr. Horner is quick to point out that simply incorporating diet and lifestyle changes isn't all it takes to get well. Anyone who has healed from Lyme disease, cancer or any other serious condition has usually discovered that there is an emotional component to their illness that must be addressed.

“There is shift going on the paradigm of Western medicine,” she adds. “I've traveled and spoken to national audiences about wellness and natural healing for over a decade. Ten years ago, almost no one had heard of Ayurveda. Now, it's commonplace.”

Dr. Horner's first book, Waking the Warrior Goddess, describes practical steps that women can take to help create and support good health. Inspiration for the metaphor was sparked one day while she contemplated an ancient symbol.

“One day I was looking at the Hindu Durga, the Goddess with the eight arms, each one holding a tool,” says Dr. Horner. “It struck me that in a way she is very representative of the natural healing intelligence within us. When you consider everything that is happening inside, the multitudes and layers of each system, trillions of cells performing their duties and working in concert together, it's like trying to contemplate the cosmos.”

Dr. Horner asked, “How would a Goddess like to be treated? It's not too hard to imagine. We either treat her in such a way that strips her of her potency or we nourish and enliven her so that she can use those tools.”

Nurturing yourself at every step of the healing process is important work. Aside from medicine, lifestyle and dietary adjustments and the willingness to find and address imbalances, healing from disease takes courage. Discovering how to access courage and willpower can make all the difference. Whether you feel more comfortable envisioning Mother Mary or a Hindu Durga warrior goddess with tools, an intelligent, healing force within, seems beneficial.

Suzanne Arthur ©2006