The placebo effect happens when patients are given a sugar pill instead of real medicine but still feel better and sometimes even heal. In the pharmaceutical community you want to avoid a strong placebo effect because it gives less motivation to take the real drug instead of the sugar pill. But isn’t it time we give the placebo effect the credit it deserves and use it to our advantage?
The placebo effect is about the connection between our thoughts and feelings, our expectations and our physical body. When we believe we will get better, we get better. Dr Lissa Rankin writes in her book, Mind over Medicine: Scientific proof that you can heal yourself, about this. When she got sick she started questioning the medical doctrine that she had been trained in. She realized that the conventional medical system had a lack of respect for our bodies inherent ability to self-healing and appreciation for how much we can affect this healing with the power of our thoughts.
“The body isn’t the foundation of your health. The body is the physical manifestation of the sum of your life experiences.”
― Dr Lissa Rankin
Dr Joe Dispenza describes the same phenomena in his book You are the Placebo: Making your Mind Matter and provides plenty of examples of people who have become well without medical treatment. There are also examples of the opposite, nocebo, which means that you get sick because you think that you will. There are even instances when people have died after having found out that they’ve been part of a voodoo ceremony or after having gotten misdiagnosed with a fatal illness.
“You must become conscious of the unconscious behaviors you’ve been choosing to demonstrate that have led to the same experiences, and then you must make new choices, take new actions, and create new experiences.”
― Dr. Joe Dispenza
So how can we create circumstances to actually start believing in this ability and eliminate what’s in the way for our bodies to find its way back to its natural balance? Both Lissa and Joe suggests, and I agree, that daily meditation is one of those tools. When you sit down, put a hand on your own heart and silently tell yourself; “I am calm, I am safe, I am here for you”, you’ll activate the parasympathetic nervous system, and, voila, self-healing is happening.
“When you’re happy, relaxed, and free of stress, the body can accomplish amazing, even miraculous, feats of self-repair.”
― Dr Lissa Rankin
Vi need to find the complements to conventional medicine and realize that everything that we do, always, affects our health. And our own health is our responsibility, not the responsibility of our health care system. And even if that system is excellent at dealing with acute situations and relieve symptoms, it is lifestyle medicine, which is all the choices we make every day, that will predict our health tomorrow and in the future.
It’s not helpful to panic now over the fact that everything you do today will affect your health positively or negatively in the future. What does help though is knowing that you are an interconnected being and that you cultivate your faith, develop your relationships, feel meaning in your life, deal with your emotions and take a look at your life surroundings all are important factors for your health. But maybe even more importantly that you find ways to, on a daily basis, activate your parasympathetic nervous system, your “break”, and by that tell yourself and your body that it is safe to repair.
Listen to your body, listen to your inner guidance and trust yourself. You know what you need to be well. What do you need right now?