You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter
Download 5.46 Mb. View original pdf
|
| Nauseated Before the Needle According to the National Cancer Institute, a condition called anticipatory nausea occurs in about 29 percent of patients receiving chemotherapy when they are exposed to the smells and sights that remind them of their chemo treatments About 11 percent feel so sick before their treatments that they actually vomit. Some cancer patients start feeling nauseated in the car on the way to get chemo, before they even set foot inside the hospital, while others throw up while still in the waiting room. A 2001 study from the University of Rochester Cancer Center published in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management concluded that expecting nausea was the strongest predictor that patients would actually experience it The researchers data reported that 40 percent of chemo patients who thought they would get sick—because their doctors told them that they probably would be sick after the treatment—went onto develop nausea before the treatment was even administered. An additional 13 percent who said they were unsure of what to expect also got sick. Yeti nonei of the patients who didn’t expect to get nauseated got sick. How can it be that some people become so convinced that they will get sick from chemotherapy drugs that they get ill before any of the drugs are even administered Is it possible that the power of their thoughts could be what’s making them sick And if that’s true of 40 percent of chemo patients, could it also be true that 40 percent of folks could just as easily get well by simply changing their thoughts about what to expect about their health or from their day Could a single thought that a person accepts also make that person better? Digestive Difficulties Disappear Not long ago, as I was about to get off an airplane in Austin, I meta woman who was reading a book that caught my eye. We were standing and waiting to deplane, and I saw the book sticking out of her bag the title mentioned the word belief. We smiled at each other, and I asked her 44 what the book was about. “Christianity and faith she answered. Why do you ask I told her that I was writing anew book on the placebo effect and that my book was all about belief. “I want to tell you this story she said. She went onto tell me that years ago, she had been diagnosed with gluten intolerance, celiac disease, colitis, and a host of other ills, and experienced chronic pain. She’d read upon the diseases and gone to see several different health professionals for advice. They had advised her to avoid certain foods and to take certain prescription drugs, which she had done, but she’d still felt pain throughout her entire body. She also hadn’t been able to sleep, had skin rashes and severe digestive disturbances, and suffered from a whole list of other unpleasant symptoms. Then, years later, the woman went to see anew doctor, who decided to do some blood tests. When the blood tests came back, all of the results were negative. “The day I found out I was really normal and there was nothing wrong with me, I thought, I’m fine, and all my symptoms went away. I immediately felt great and could eat whatever I wanted she told me with a flourish. Smiling, she added, What do you believe about that?” If it’s true that learning new information that leads to a degree turnaround in what we believe about ourselves can actually make our symptoms disappear, what’s going on in our bodies that’s supporting that and making it happen What’s the exact relationship between the mind and the body Could it be possible that those new beliefs could actually change our brains and body chemistries, physically rewire our neurological circuitry of who we think we are, and alter our genetic expression Could we in fact become different people? Parkinson’s vs. the Placebo Parkinson’s disease is a neurological disorder marked by the gradual degeneration of nerve cells in the portion of the midbrain called the basal Download 5.46 Mb. Share with your friends:
|