I read ” Biology of Belief” by Bruce H Lipton over the past weekend and was taken by his chapters on placebos and the power of the mind to heal. He cites dozens of cases where ‘miracles’ have occurred when patients believed that they were being cured. He talks about laboratory settings where double blind studies show statistically insignificant differences between patients taking drugs and patients receiving sugar pills but believing they were on a prescribed medication. The cases he uses cover cancer to heart disease to mental illness and the ‘success’ rates are amazing.
Lipton writes about the power of nocebos – where the mind doesn’t believe in the regimen or process and conditions get worse regardless of treatment. Depression gets worse because the patient doesn’t have hope. Cancer gets more aggressive because the mind believes that this is the end. New symptoms flare up because the nocebo effect takes over.
Seems we have a remarkable tool in our health arsenal and we get to choose how to use it. Believe and get better. Deny and get worse. I recognize that is an oversimplification but if we keep it simple maybe we can remember it.
Make Today Remarkable, by believing in the remarkable,
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Make It Your Problem 