Think Sick and Be Sick, or Think Well and Live Well.

No matter whether you are a patient in the UK, a medical student, a mum, or whatever, focusing your attention on illness has been scientifically proven to make you sick. Excessive knowledge about what can go wrong with the body can actually harm you. The more you focus on the ways in which the body can break down, the more likely you are to experience illness.

Scientists call this phenomenon the nocebo effect. While the placebo effect demonstrates the power of positive thinking, expectation, and hope, the nocebo effect demonstrates the power of negative belief. While a placebo was traditionally prescribed to help the patient feel better, the term nocebo (Latin for “I shall harm you”), was introduced to differentiate between the pleasing effects of placebos from the harmful effects that negative thoughts can bring us.

To explain this curious phenomenon, we turn to the truly wonderful book written by Dr Bernie Siegel. Here he cites a study where patients are in a control group that purports to examine a new chemotherapy drug. Why anyone in their right mind would submit their body to such toxic poison is beyond our comprehension, but for this example let’s just accept that they did. What they didn’t know, was that there was nothing but saline (salt solution) in the drug. That it was chemo was false; but that’s the way that things are tested. In the process of taking to false drug, they were warned it could be chemotherapy. 30% of them believed it was, and lost their hair. In another study, hospitalised patients were given sugar-water to control their illness. Told they may feel sick, 80% of them vomited.

Berni goes on to explain another study that examined asthmatics. This time, they were convinced to inhale a harmless saline solution, despite being told it contained irritating allergens. Not only did they wheeze and feel short of breath, their bronchi (air passages of the lungs) actually constricted. The converse of this is that those who experienced full-blown asthma attacks found relief when they were dosed with the same solution, and told it would help them.

Even medical students can be duped in this manner. Bernie quotes a study published in the Pavlovian Journal of Biological Sciences, where 34 college students were hooked up to monitors and told that an electric current would be passed through their heads. The participants were warned that they might experience a headache as a side-effect. Although not a single volt of current was actually used, more than 2/3rd of the students reported headaches.

Silly? Mad? The truth is that these forms of tests are all controlled by Big-Pharma. It’s been like this for years, when perhaps people weren’t as educated as they are these days; and it was probably where the poor students agreed to be guinea-pigs because there was financial gain in the offer.

So where does this leave us?

These days, many of us are more-savvy about how to care for ourselves. Many have less trust in our overworked doctors, and instead spend their time trawling the internet for answers to all sorts of things such as, “is there any benefit in eating Lions mane mushrooms? What’s the best type 2 diabetes medication, how to fix leg cramps at night (that we may make the focus of our next newsletter), where to find a lidocaine patch (for pain relief), Crohn’s disease symptoms, and searching for the even the more obscure Lou Gehrigs disease (a form of muscle wasting).” The problem here, is that if there is somebody writing about the subject on-line, no matter their qualifications and ability to do so, somebody somewhere will get better simply because they believe the words. After all, everything written on the internet is true – isn’t it?

But is it safe to be our own doctor? The answer is a definitive no. However, on the other hand, there are simple things that we can do, on our own, to help us.

Let’s imagine your body is facing a physical threat. A lady driver is travelling down a quiet street when suddenly a wee dog runs out in front of her car. She slams on the brakes. The dog looks up, grins (as dogs do) and runs off leaving the driver in heart-racing panic-mode that last for a good while. The woman goes to bed and recalls the dog and its narrow escape. Her heart races and she can’t get to sleep. But it shouldn’t be like that. Why? Because like the placebo and nocebo, it’s all in the mind!! The body doesn’t realise that there is no physical threat. It runs with the woman’s thoughts – and it punishes her – and if this stress response if triggered repeatedly, our internal biological response winds up doing more harm than good. And as we all live in a stressful society these days it’s a bigger problem than ever.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. A bit like sitting in a doctor’s waiting room, we all blow the simple problem for the doctor to resolve, into a monster. Fear supresses the immune system.

So, what can we do about this?

What we find really useful in situations like this is the 4-7-8 breath. Breathe in for four. Hold the breath for seven. Breathe out slowly for more than eight. Repeat and repeat several times and as you do, listen to your heartbeat as it slows and calms. That’s what the lady car driver who was terrified after she ‘nearly’ ran over a little errant dog, should have done to get her fight and flight response calmed. It is something that we have used lots of times to great effect. Especially in bed at night after a hard day at work, when your subconscious is still pouring over the events of the day. Your heart-rate is up and you cannot get to sleep no matter what you try. It’s here that the 4-7-8 breathing plays its vital part. Just do it and do it. Eventually all will become calm and you will fall asleep. You will think well and be well.

Give it a try.

Now what was I looking for on the internet before I started writing this article? Pain management, tension headache, 10-minute gout cure, cough medicine, Ayurvedic medicine, cluster headaches, sore throat remedies, back pain? Oh yes, I remember it was a Tens machine. Now, are they for humans or horses? Ah, jings, I give up. It’s all in my head.

Last but not least

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