From Lissa Rankin 10 Myths about self healing debunked Positive psychology and New Age ideas about health and healing have flooded the internet and bookstore shelves in recent years. But as a doctor who wrote a science-based book about the physiology of the body’s natural healing process, it strikes me that some of what’s out there is giving the idea that the body can heal itself a bad rap. Why do I say that? Well, there’s a lot of pseudo-science and quasi-psychology masquerading as real data, when people are hungry for truth. Here’s some help debunking popular myths that may confuse what’s real. 1. It’s “just the placebo effect.” Just the placebo effect? Why do people say “placebo” as if it’s a four-letter word? Don’t they understand that the placebo effect is proof positive that the body is brilliantly equipped with natural self-repair mechanisms that can fix broken proteins, kill cancer cells, fight infectious agents, and retard aging? And don’t they realize that even if a clinical trial fails to demonstrate that a drug or surgery or alternative medicine treatment is better than a placebo, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t “work” when 18-80% of the time, the body heals itself when given a sugar pill or saline injection in a clinical trial. And that’s GREAT NEWS! The placebo effect needs a major image overhaul. I suggest we call it the “self-healing effect” to remind ourselves that it’s just a measurable phenomena related to the body’s known self-repair mechanisms. 2. The placebo effect is all in your mind. While thoughts, beliefs, and feelings originating in the mind can activate placebo-like “self-healing effects” in the body, the placebo effect doesn’t just make people feel better; it effects measurable outcomes in the body’s physiology. When patients are treated with sugar pills, saline injections, and fake surgeries, warts disappear. Colons become less inflamed. Bronchi dilate. Bald men even grow hair. It’s not just in your mind. It’s in your body. 3. Placebo effects only happen to gullible people. Nope. All of us are susceptible to placebo effects. In fact, some studies suggest that people with higher IQ’s may be even more susceptible than average. The only ones who seem to be relatively immune to placebo effects are those with Alzheimer’s. 4. You can heal yourself. To say you can heal yourself is kind of a misnomer. As I elucidate in great detail in Chapter 3 of Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof That You Can Heal Yourself, the data suggests that your body can heal itself, but it does so much more effectively when the process is facilitated by the right kinds of healers who support the body’s self-healing process. These may include doctors and nurses, but they may also include therapists, acupuncturists, energy healers, naturopaths, shamans, and many other modalities of healing practitioners. A combination of positive belief on the part of your provider and nurturing care that leaves your amygdala feeling calm and safe has been scientifically proven to improve health outcomes. 5. Doctors don’t use placebos in clinical practice. Psych! Approximately 50% of doctors admit to using placebos in clinical practice, usually without the patient’s consent. They’re not trying to be sneaky. Those who do this are just trying to help. (For example, when a patient has maxed out her pain medication and will be at risk if she gets more, a doctor may inject saline into her IV and tell her it’s morphine. Very often, she gets relief.) It’s not always a sugar pill or a saline injection. Sometimes, instead, it’s a drug known to be ineffective for the condition being treated or a vitamin proven not to work. It’s an ethical dilemma for doctors, and many are conflicted about their choices, but if you think it doesn’t happen in medical offices, think again. 6. If you can’t heal yourself, you’ve done something wrong. No! No! No! While thoughts, beliefs, and feelings that originate in the mind can trigger stress responses in the body that deactivate the body’s natural self-healing processes, predisposing the body to illness, the presence of illness does not mean that you’ve been a bad patient with bad thoughts and you deserve a cosmic spanking. There’s no place for blame, shame, or guilt when it comes to the healing process. Such thoughts only trigger more stress responses. As Dr. Christiane Northrup says, “We are responsible to our illness, not for our illness.” Instead of blaming yourself, try asking yourself, “Is there a lesson I might learn from my health condition?” or “If my illness had a message to deliver me, what would it tell me?” If the answer to both questions is “Nada,” cool beans. Even if your health condition has something to teach you, it doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong. It means you’re doing something very right by allowing illness to be an opportunity for awakening.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Aug 2013 12:30:00 +0000
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