The close relationship between the mind, the body and the placebo effect.
What if the way in which we think is the root of all our suffering? What if we could change how we think to avoid illness? How then do we prevent sickness? We take vitamins, we hope that we have good DNA to begin with and we try to exercise and eat well, but what if someone told you that your DNA can be changed if you alter your way of thinking? Can we then think ourselves to good health? Believe it or not, there is increasing evidence today that the mind is a powerful tool when it comes to improving health. A quote from Buddha says “all that we are is a result of what we have thought”. In other words ‘healthy mind equals healthy body’.
As a type one diabetic, I’m curious to know more about the power of the brain/mind when it comes to physical illness. After much research and case studies later, I now believe that the brain and our thoughts have more of a hold over our physical health that we might care to realise. Now let’s take a look at the evidence to see if this holds true:
Optimistic, positive people manage stress better, have healthier gut biomes and are less likely to suffer physical illness.
Co-director of the Centre for Health and Happiness at Harvard School of Public Health, Dr Laura Kubzansky, studies the relationship between our thoughts and our physical health. In one of her studies, Dr Kubzansky observed 70,000 nurses and discovered that the most optimistic nurses had an estimated 15% longer lifespan than those who had a negative outlook. “People with higher levels of positive emotions do a better job of managing stress”, she explains. This means that they have lower levels of cortisol in the blood (the stress hormone that leads to inflammation). Reduced stress also means reduced “allostatic load”, the medical term used to describe the wear and tear that happens to the body when it has been subject to stress for a long period of time.
Dr Kubzansky believes that we need to spend more time focusing on ‘positive biology’, looking at what happens to the cells in our bodies when everything is working correctly, rather than paying all of our attention to illness and what happens in the body when something goes wrong.
Negative, stress-induced thinking has the power to change your DNA.
Our DNA is our genetic blueprint that provides our cells with the instructions they need to develop, grow and reproduce. Molecular biologist and 2009 Nobel Prize winner Dr Elizabeth Blackburn of the University of California has investigated the influence of our mind on our telomeres. Telomeres are the chunks of DNA found at the ends of our chromosomes. Every time a cell divides, the telomeres get shorter and if they become too short, the cell in which they are located stops dividing and the cell dies. Telomeres naturally shorten with age, but lifestyle factors like stress can accelerate their shortening. Dr Blackburn’s research[1] concludes that pessimists have shorter telomeres than optimists and are more likely to be sick.
As we’ve seen, when we’re stressed, cortisol levels go up, but not only that. The higher the cortisol level in the blood, the lower the concentration of telomerase (the enzyme that can replenish telomeres). If this enzyme is in short supply, our telomeres shorten more rapidly, leaving us at a greater risk of developing age-related illnesses like heart disease and stroke sooner rather than later.
Another study of premenopausal women found that women who had the highest levels of perceived stress in their daily life had much shorter telomeres than the non-stressed control group; the difference in telomere length between the groups was a whopping 10 years of life![2] In other words, their cells had aged the equivalent of 10 years more than those of the women in the control group. So you can see, stress affects our health in a negative way and decreases our longevity.[3] All the more reason to meditate!
Now that we’ve looked at what positive thinking can do to improve our health and how stress can negatively affect it, let’s take a look at the power of belief. The power of the ‘placebo’.
You’ve probably heard about the placebo effect, where medication with no active ingredient – merely a ‘sugar pill’ – has had the power to relieve pain or physical illness. The phenomenon works like this: a patient is given a pill and told that it will relieve their symptoms and the pill works, solely because the patient believes that it’s working. One example shared in Nature Communications found that half the people who took a sugar pill for chronic pain reduced their pain by 30% – as effectively as they would have had with pain medication.[4]
So we know that placebo pills can work, but can we predict who they will work for?
Interestingly, in this same study, certain features of the brain’s anatomy, such as asymmetry in the area of the brain that controls emotion, reward and personality traits like emotional self-awareness, were linked to the placebo effect working. Perhaps other factors come into play that determines the success of the placebo effect. Psychologist Dr Alia Crum tells us to look at the placebo effect as a psychological phenomenon that we can use to improve treatment outcomes.[ In one study participants were induced with an allergic reaction via a histamine skin prick test. The participants were then given a cream by a healthcare provider and told that the cream would reduce or increase symptoms. However, the friendlier and more competent the doctor, the higher the expectations the patient had that the cream would take effect. This shows that social behaviour may also have a role to play when it comes to the placebo effect.
Dr Ted Kaptchuk, a placebo researcher at Harvard, decided to change things up and tell people with IBS that he was prescribing them a placebo. The result was that symptoms improved in 60% of those given the placebo, even though the patients were aware that they were taking a sugar pill. This undermines the hypothesis that the placebo works because people don’t know it’s a placebo. This is fascinating because it means that we can condition ourselves to believe that placebos, free from the side-effects of regular drugs, can, in fact, relieve us of symptoms we may have. Of course, if a placebo is to become a thing of the future, it should always be done under the supervision of a medical professional.
After taking a look at the research that’s out there, it looks like we can associate a placebo with symptom relief and prolong our life or fight infection by changing how we perceive our illness or disease, at least to some extent. But what can we do to adopt a healthier mind set, reduce stress levels and think ourselves healthy?
We can:
- Practice relaxation techniques like deep breathing exercises to help reduce stress levels, prolonging the life of our cells and keeping us younger for longer.
- Take up a yoga class.
- Practice mindfulness.
- Attend cognitive behavioural therapy.
- Become aware of how you think.
Would you say you are you are a predominantly positive or negative person? Becoming aware of your thoughts is the first step towards tackling them to create a life that is more stress-free.
With regards to the placebo, it’s worth talking to a healthcare
provider to get their opinion. For now, taking steps towards being a more
positive and optimistic person means less stress, which means fewer chances of
developing a serious illness. Prevention is always better than a cure.
[1]https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_blackburn_the_science_of_cells_that_never_get_old?language=en
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC534658
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3370421/
[4] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-05859-1[
That’s how Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) works, by looking at the situations in our life from a different & more positive perspective. Research has also found that the ‘Placebo Effect’ (net-bossorg/the-power-of-the-placebo-effect-by-randy-baker) actually has a real physiologically impact upon the brain & body (not just a Psychological one). So interesting!