rethinking the placebo effect_ how our minds actually affect our bodies _ brain pickings
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6/24/14 Rethinking the Placebo Effect: How Our Minds Actually Affect Our Bodies | Brain Pickings
www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2014/06/23/nothing-jo-marchant-heal-thyself/ 1/18
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Rethinking the Placebo Effect: HowOur Minds Actually Affect OurBodiesby Maria Popova
The startling physiological effects of loneliness,
optimism, and meditation.
In 2013, Neil deGrasse Tyson hosted a mind-
bending debate on the nature of nothing
an inquiry that has occupied thinkers since the
dawn of recorded thought and permeates
everything from Hamlets iconic question to
the boldest frontiers of quantum physics.
Thats precisely what New Scientist editor-in-
chief Jeremy Webb explores with a
kaleidoscopic lens in Nothing: Surprising
Insights Everywhere from Zero to Oblivion
(public library) a terrific collection of essays
and articles exploring everything from vacuum
to the birth and death of the universe to how
the concept of zero gained wide acceptance in
the 17th century after being shunned as a
dangerous innovation for 400 years. As Webb elegantly puts it, nothing
becomes a lens through which we can explore the universe around us and even
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labors of love
what it is to be human. It reveals past attitudes and present thinking.
Among the most intensely interesting pieces in the collection is one by science
journalist Jo Marchant, who penned the fascinating story of the worlds oldest
analog computer. Titled Heal Thyself, the piece explores how the way we think
about medical treatments shapes their very real, very physical effects on our
bodies an almost Gandhi-like proposition, except rooted in science rather
than philosophy. Specifically, Marchant brings to light a striking new dimension
of the placebo effect that runs counter to how the phenomenon has been
conventionally explained. She writes:
It has always been assumed that the placebo effect only
works if people are conned into believing that they are getting
an actual active drug. But now it seems this may not be
true. Belief in the placebo effect itself rather than a
particular drug might be enough to encourage our bodies
to heal.
She cites a recent study at the Harvard Medical School, in which people with
irritable bowel syndrome were given a placebo and informed that the pills were
made of an inert substance, like sugar pills, that have been shown in clinical
studies to produce significant improvement in IBS symptoms through mind-
body self-healing processes. As Marchant notes, this is absolutely true, in a
meta kind of way. What the researchers found was startling in its implications
for medicine, philosophy, and spirituality despite being aware they were
taking placebos, the participants rated their symptoms as moderately
improved on average. In other words, they knew what they were taking wasnt
a drug it was a medical nothing but the very consciousness of taking
something made them experience fewer symptoms.
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6/24/14 Rethinking the Placebo Effect: How Our Minds Actually Affect Our Bodies | Brain Pickings
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Illustration by Marianne Dubuc from 'The Lion and the Bird.' Click image for
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6/24/14 Rethinking the Placebo Effect: How Our Minds Actually Affect Our Bodies | Brain Pickings
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more.
This dovetails into recent research confirming what Helen Keller fervently
believed by putting some serious science behind the value of optimism.
Marchant sums up the findings:
Realism can be bad for your health. Optimists recover better
from medical procedures such as coronary bypass surgery,
have healthier immune systems and live longer, both in
general and when suffering from conditions such as cancer,
heart disease and kidney failure.
It is well accepted that negative thoughts and anxiety can
make us ill. Stress the belief that we are at risk triggers
physiological pathways such as the fight-or-flight
response, mediated by the sympathetic nervous system.
These have evolved to protect us from danger, but if
switched on long-term they increase the risk of conditions
such as diabetes and dementia.
What researchers are now realizing is that positive beliefs
dont just work by quelling stress. They have a positive effect
too feeling safe and secure, or believing things will turn
out fine, seems to help the body maintain and repair itself
Optimism seems to reduce stress-induced inflammation and
levels of stress hormones such as cortisol. It may also
reduce susceptibility to disease by dampening sympathetic
nervous system activity and stimulating the parasympathetic
nervous system. The latter governs whats called the rest-
and-digest response the opposite of fight-or-flight.
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6/24/14 Rethinking the Placebo Effect: How Our Minds Actually Affect Our Bodies | Brain Pickings
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Just as helpful as taking a rosy view of the future is having a
rosy view of yourself. High self-enhancers people who
see themselves in a more positive light than others see them
have lower cardiovascular responses to stress and
recover faster, as well as lower baseline cortisol levels.
Marchant notes that its as beneficial to amplify the worlds perceived positivity
as it is to amplify our own something known as our self-enhancement bias,
a type of self-delusion that helps keep us sane. But the same applies to our
attitudes toward others as well they too can impact our physical health. She
cites University of Chicago psychologist John Cacioppo, who has dedicated his
career to studying how social isolation affects individuals. Though solitude
might be essential for great writing, being alone a special form of art, and single
living the defining modality of our time, loneliness is a different thing altogether
a thing Cacioppo found to be toxic:
Being lonely increases the risk of everything from heart
attacks to dementia, depression and death, whereas people
who are satisfied with their social lives sleep better, age more
slowly and respond better to vaccines. The effect is so
strong that curing loneliness is as good for your health as
giving up smoking.
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6/24/14 Rethinking the Placebo Effect: How Our Minds Actually Affect Our Bodies | Brain Pickings
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must-reads
HOW TO FIND YOUR PURPOSE AND DO
WHAT YOU LOVE
Illustration by Marianne Dubuc from 'The Lion and the Bird.' Click image formore.
Marchant quotes another researcher, Charles Raison at Atlantas Emory
University, who studies mindbody interactions:
Its probably the single most powerful behavioral finding in
the world People who have rich social lives and warm,
open relationships dont get sick and they live longer.
Marchant points to specific research by Cacioppo, who found that in lonely
people, genes involved in cortisol signaling and the inflammatory response were
up-regulated, and that immune cells important in fighting bacteria were more
active, too. Marchant explains the findings and the essential caveat to them:
[Cacioppo] suggests that our bodies may have evolved so
that in situations of perceived social isolation, they trigger
branches of the immune system involved in wound healing
and bacterial infection. An isolated person would be at
greater risk of physical trauma, whereas being in a group
might favor the immune responses necessary for fighting
viruses, which spread easily between people in close contact.
Crucially, these differences relate most strongly to how
lonely people think they are, rather than to the actual size of
their social network. That also makes sense from an
evolutionary point of view, says Cacioppo, because being
among hostile strangers can be just as dangerous as being
alone. So ending loneliness is not about spending more time
with people. Cacioppo thinks it is all about our attitude to
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others: lonely people become overly sensitive to social
threats and come to see others as potentially dangerous. In
a review of previous studies he found that tackling this
attitude reduced loneliness more effectively than giving people
more opportunities for interaction, or teaching social skills.
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6/24/14 Rethinking the Placebo Effect: How Our Minds Actually Affect Our Bodies | Brain Pickings
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Illustration by Andr Franois for 'Little Boy Brown,' a lovely vintage ode tochildhood and loneliness. Click image for more.
Paradoxically, science suggests that one of the most important interventions to
offer benefits that counter the ill effects of loneliness has to do with solitude
or, more precisely, regimented solitude in the form of meditation. Marchant
notes that trials on the effects of meditation have been small something I find
troublesomely emblematic of the short-sightedness with which we approach
mental health as we continue to prioritize the physical in both our clinical
subsidies and our everyday lives (how many people have a workout routine
compared to those with a meditation practice?); even within the study of mental
health, the vast majority of medical research focuses on the effects of a physical
substance a drug of some sort on the mind, with very little effort directed
at understanding the effects of the mind on the physical body.
Still, the modest body of research on meditation is heartening. Marchant
writes:
There is some evidence that meditation boosts the immune
response in vaccine recipients and people with cancer,
protects against a relapse in major depression, soothes skin
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6/24/14 Rethinking the Placebo Effect: How Our Minds Actually Affect Our Bodies | Brain Pickings
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conditions and even slows the progression of HIV.
Meditation might even slow the aging process. Telomeres,
the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes, get
shorter every time a cell divides and so play a role in aging.
Clifford Saron of the Center for Mind and Brain at the
University of California, Davis, and colleagues showed in 2011
that levels of an enzyme that builds up telomeres were higher
in people who attended a three-month meditation retreat than
in a control group.
As with social interaction, meditation probably works largely
by influencing stress response pathways. People who
meditate have lower cortisol levels, and one study showed
they have changes in their amygdala, a brain area involved in
fear and the response to threat.
If youre intimidated by the time investment, take heart fMRI studies show
that as little as 11 hours of total training, or an hour every other day for three
weeks, can produce structural changes in the brain. If youre considering
dipping your toes in the practice, I wholeheartedly recommend meditation
teacher Tara Brach, who has changed my life.
But perhaps the most striking finding in exploring how our beliefs affect our
bodies has to do with finding your purpose and, more than that, finding
meaning in life. The most prominent studies in the field have defined purpose
rather narrowly, as religious belief, but even so, the findings offer an undeniably
intriguing signpost to further exploration. Marchant synthesizes the research,
its criticism, and its broader implications:
In a study of 50 people with advanced lung cancer, those
judged by their doctors to have high spiritual faith
responded better to chemotherapy and survived longer. More
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6/24/14 Rethinking the Placebo Effect: How Our Minds Actually Affect Our Bodies | Brain Pickings
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THE DAILY ROUTINES OF FAMOUS WRITERS
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than 40 percent were still alive after three years, compared
with less than 10 percent of those judged to have little faith.
Are your hackles rising? Youre not alone. Of all the research
into the healing potential of thoughts and beliefs, studies into
the effects of religion are the most controversial.
Critics of these studies point out that many of them dont
adequately tease out other factors. For instance, religious
people often have lower-risk lifestyles and churchgoers tend
to enjoy strong social support, and seriously ill people are
less likely to attend church.
[]
Others think that what really matters is having a sense of
purpose in life, whatever it might be. Having an idea of why
you are here and what is important increases our sense of
control over events, rendering them less stressful. In Sarons
three-month meditation study, the increase in levels of the
enzyme that repairs telomeres correlated with an increased
sense of control and an increased sense of purpose in life. In
fact, Saron argues, this psychological shift may have been
more important than the meditation itself. He points out that
the participants were already keen meditators, so the study
gave them the chance to spend three months doing
something important to them. Spending more time doing
what you love, whether its gardening or voluntary work,
might have a similar effect on health. The big news from the
study, Saron says, is the profound impact of having the
opportunity to live your life in a way that you find
meaningful.
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ALBERT EINSTEIN ON THE SECRET TO
LEARNING ANYTHING
5 ESSENTIAL BOOKS ON FEAR AND THE
CREATIVE PROCESS
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Philosopher Daniel Dennett was right all along in asserting that the secret of
happiness is to find something more important than you are and dedicate your
life to it.
Each of the essays in Nothing: Surprising Insights Everywhere from Zero to
Oblivion is nothing short of fascinating. Complement them with theoretical
physicist Lawrence Krauss on the science of something and nothing.
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