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Power Of The Mind
By peace | November 26, 2007
People often puzzle over what life means, where we come from and where we are bound. To be anxious and bewildered at times is to be human. For many of us, the past has been painful, the present is insecure and the future uncertain. In the struggle to make sense of life, certain certain activities create a supportive framework that connects us to our ‘inner selves’, to each other and to the world. These activities include art, literature, music, community, family, worship and play, and they are especially important when illness presents us with the reality of our vulnerability, limitations and dependency. Broadly speaking, this is the realm of spirituality.
Modern epidemics of long-term and stress-related diseases that seem to be only partially alleviated by conventional medicine have led many medical practitioners to question 20th century science’s distinction between mind and body. The origins of this schism are often ascribed to the 17th century French philosopher Descartes, who sought to accommodate tensions between the Catholic church and the emerging science of medicine by allotting the intangible soul to the care of priests and the physical, ‘measurable’ body to that of physicians. From here it was an easy step for the medical establishments to regard illness as purely a mechanical breakdown in the body’s machinery.
But can our emotions affect our physical health? At the very heart of science lies a phenomenon that supports the theory of holistic medicine. Belief in a treatment, whether on the part of the patient or practitioner, or simply faith in the practitioner, can be so powerful that the patient actually gets better. The placebo response has reduced blood pressure, healed ulcers, eased swelling, overridden the effects of stimulants, and relieved arthritis, hay fever and depression. In actively encouraging patients to participate in their own healing, practitioners may be able to exploit the power of this mind/body response.
Professor Herbert Benson of the Mind/Body Medical Institute of Harvard Medical School in the US reports that when actual patient cases are studied, the success rate of the placebo response can be as high as 90%. The power of belief and expectation, he believes may be harnessed by eliciting the ‘relaxation response’, a mental state that triggers significant physiological changes, including lowered blood pressure, slower breathing, reduced muscle tension and diminished stress-hormone levels. Any technique in which the mind is quietly focused, such as meditation, visualization, diaphragmatic breathing, biofeedback, hypnosis, qigong or yoga, can induce the relaxation response, and conventional practitioners at medical centres in the US, UK and Australia now employ these methods to improve the well-being of patients. (Source: Encyclopedia of Natural healing)
The Placebo Response
A placebo(from the Latin for “I will please”) is an inactive medication or treatment given to a patient in place of genuine drug or medical technique. In clinical trials, new treatments are tested against a placebo, which may be a sugar pill or meaningless procedure, and because patients expect it to work, the placebo may have a therapeutic effect. The implications of this are often dismissed by conventional practitioners, but it is highly significant that, when given a placebo, around 30% of people in clinical trials feel considerable improvements; according to some researchers, this can rise to as much as 90%. The opposite also appears to be true: patients receiving insensitive treatment from practitioners often feel worse - a “nocebo” effect.
How a treatment is given, by whom, and in what setting, is clearly important, but little is understood about the physical and psychological processes involved. What is clear is that all treatments, particularly surgical procedures, do have a large placebo component. Research into the immune system has shown how patients’ expectations and feelings can influence healing processes, and the relationship between mind and body in all illness, especially long-term disease, has a considerable effect on the outcome of health problems.
Topics: Health, Spiritual Articles |
