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Bernie Siegel in his book Love, Medicine, and Miracles points to one shocking study from 1983 where cancer patients were either given chemotherapy or a saline solution. A startling 30 % of those receiving the placebo actually lost their hair. When we think about the mind-body connection, it sounds a little woo-woo to some people. But I explained in this chapter that there is an overwhelming amount of evidence in the medical literature highlighting how important the mind-body connection is.
Let's talk about it.
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Welcome to the Christian Healthy Lifestyle Podcast where I help you navigate natural health so you can stay out of the doctor's office, age gracefully, and live abundantly. I'm your host, David Sandstrom. Today we're continuing my series on the mind-body connection. I'm going to be reading from my book, The Christian's Guide to Holistic Health, specifically Chapter 24, The Mind-Body Connection. Researchers would love to see the placebo effect go away, but it won't. David Sandstrom.
of mice and skeptics. One of the criticisms I often hear from people is that holistic or complementary healing methods are not proven scientifically. In my experience, people seem especially comfortable expressing their skepticism toward holistic principles when the topic of the mind-body connection comes up. Skeptics tend to get a smug demeanor when they explain that they believe in the scientific method and therefore prefer to rely on evidence-based medicine.
that pharmaceutical companies and medical doctors and hospitals provide. The fact is, there's plenty of evidence in medical literature supporting the use of holistic methods. For instance, the Institute of Noetic Sciences published a book called Spontaneous Remission in Annotated Bibliography. That book documents over 3,500 cases of spontaneous remissions or healings from more than 800 journals in 20 different languages.
The authors of this publication didn't get into why these people were healed. However, the medical professionals associated with these patients weren't expecting them to recover from their illnesses. In other words, there was no medical explanation for their healing, but they recovered anyway. I don't like the term spontaneous because it implies that there's no reason for their healing. Let me be clear. I believe God can and does perform healing miracles. However, I would suggest
that for the vast majority of these patients, they employed a combination of holistic resources that we're discussing in these pages, especially the principles related to the mind. As we're about to see, what's going on in our minds has the power to heal and the power to harm. Space constraints don't allow a comprehensive discussion, so in this chapter, we'll focus on a single aspect of the mind-body connection. This aspect is the placebo.
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The scientific gold standard for medical research is the double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. With nearly every clinical trial, there is a certain percentage of people who, when given a sugar pill, saline injection, or sham surgery, actually experience the desired outcome the real thing is purported to elicit. If a drug cannot be shown to outperform the placebo, it's considered to be ineffective and will not be approved by the FDA. The percentage of people experiencing a positive placebo effect
usually comes in around a third. However, much higher rates have been observed. For instance, in one trial, nearly half of people with ulcer pain responded to placebo. In multiple studies, nearly all of the positive effects from antidepressants are attributed to the placebo effect. In another study, 28 % of people with colitis experienced improvement and almost 10 % experienced complete remission. These results were not merely subjective feelings. They were real
physical, measurable results confirmed with endoscopy. Researchers would love to see the placebo effect go away, but it won't. Since they're hoping that the drug being tested will be more effective than placebo, they take steps to minimize the placebo effect before the actual start of the study. It's common practice in the industry to measure people's responsiveness to suggestions. Anyone that responds favorably in the pre-study phase is eliminated from the study.
If this were not the case, the percentage of placebo responders would no doubt be much higher than is actually reported in the literature. All in the mind? The placebo effect is not just all in the mind. Real, physiological, observable changes take place in people's bodies. In her book, Mind Over Medicine, Dr. Lissa Rankin documents with references from medical literature that physiological changes can and do take place. She says,
quote, when given placebos, bald men grow hair, blood pressure drops, warts disappear, ulcers heal, stomach acid levels decrease, colon information decreases, cholesterol levels drop, jaw muscles relax and swelling goes down after dental procedures, brain dopamine levels increase in patients with Parkinson's disease, white blood cell activity increases, and the brains of people who experience pain relief light up on imaging studies.
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Also, Dr. Rankin explains that medical students often experience symptoms of the disease they're studying. Employees in the clinics at medical school campuses even have a term for it. They call it med studentitis. Sham knee surgery. One of the more convincing studies involving the placebo effect was published in the New England Journal of Medicine that featured Dr. Bruce Mosley. Dr. Mosley, an orthopedic surgeon, was well known for arthroscopic knee surgery.
This surgery was effective in relieving pain and increasing mobility in patients suffering from osteoarthritis. Dr. Mosley noticed that about 30 % of his patients experienced improvement. He also knew that this percentage is expected from the placebo effect. So he devised a cleverly controlled single-blind study where his surgery could be compared to placebo. In the study, some patients received the actual arthroscopic surgery, others received a placebo or sham surgery.
The placebo group was sedated. While he made three incisions in the knee, he even swished water around to simulate the sound of a lavage and then stitched the incisions back up as in actual surgery. All this while the patient watched a pre-recorded video of someone else's knee surgery on monitor. After two years of follow-up, the results were that the sham surgery patients experienced more relief and better outcomes than the actual surgery patients.
The Nocebo Effect Another aspect to understand concerning the mind-body connection is the placebo effect can work in reverse. Just as positive beliefs, expectations, and hope can stimulate healing, negative ideas, pessimism, and hopelessness can bring harm. This is called the Nocebo Effect. This is when someone is given a placebo and believes they're going to be experiencing an adverse side effect, and that's precisely what happens. In clinical trials,
When patients are warned about the side effects they may suffer if they're given the real drug, approximately 25 % do experience side effects even when they've only taken a sugar pill. Bernie Siegel in his book Love, Medicine, and Miracles points to one shocking study from 1983 where cancer patients were either given chemotherapy or a saline solution. A startling 30 % of those receiving the placebo actually lost their hair. In one study,
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Researchers compared the death records of 30,000 Chinese Americans with that of 400,000 randomly selected white Americans. They found that the Chinese Americans died up to five years earlier than their white counterparts. The Chinese deaths correlated to birth years that were considered to be harmful according to the Chinese astrology calendar. Researchers found that the more closely they followed the Chinese astrological traditions, the more likely they were to die at a younger age.
genetic and other less style factors were accounted for. The researchers concluded that the Chinese Americans perished at a younger age because of their beliefs. These cases demonstrate the real power of the mind-body connection. Rather than being ignored, minimized, or explained away, I suggest we learn all we can about this phenomena, explore it more thoroughly, and exploit it to our advantage. Wouldn't it make sense to try and harness this healing power and teach people how to use it themselves?
the road less traveled. To illustrate this point, I'd like to share a story. I've been a professional airline pilot since I was 24 years old. When I was younger, I enjoyed 2015 vision and I didn't have to wear glasses. However, I was told by the older pilots that when you turn 40, you can expect your vision to deteriorate. Guess what happened in my early 40s? My visual acuity did start to fade, up to the point that I had 2070 uncorrected vision,
and I had to wear corrective lenses to pass my FAA physical. Then I heard about a natural vision improvement program called the Bates Method. Dr. William Bates was an ophthalmologist. From time to time, his patients would lose their glasses and have to come in for a replacement pair. When he examined them after going without glasses for a couple of weeks, he noticed something interesting. Frequently, their vision improved, sometimes dramatically. Dr. Bates theorized
that if he could figure out what these patients had done by accident and teach it to people, that anyone could learn to improve their vision naturally. He wrote a book in his experience called The Bates Method for Better Eyesight Without Glasses. used the Bates method and restored my vision back to 2020. I was able to get the must-wear corrective lens restriction removed from my FAA medical certificate. This is a big deal for pilots and almost aren't heard of, yet I did it. That was 11 years ago.
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At the time of this writing, I am 56 years old and I still have 2020 uncorrected vision. This part is not in the book. At the time I'm reading this chapter, I'm 62 years old and I still have 2020 uncorrected vision. Pretty good, huh? The mind-body connection is real. The thoughts we entertain, the beliefs that we hold will impact our health on a physical level.
Dr. Bates could have dismissed the cases where vision was improved serendipitously as a handful of unexplained mysteries. Instead, he chose the road less traveled and asked the right questions. This choice has benefited countless people, such as myself, who are able to ditch their glasses and enjoy clear vision naturally. Most people haven't heard of the Bates method, even though it's been around for nearly a hundred years. Dr. Bates died in 1931.
As you might guess, Bates wasn't very popular in ophthalmology circles. If you were alive today, I suspect this would be the same case. Most eye doctors would rather sell you glasses or better yet charge you handsomely for lasik surgery. It's just not popular for eye doctors to promote natural vision improvement because no one's going to get rich by teaching people to have no need for their services. The same can be said for learning more about the mind-body connection.
Why would pharmaceutical companies and physicians promote methods that empower people to stay away from drugs in doctors' offices? There's no financial incentive for them to do so. However, there is plenty of incentive for individuals to learn more about healing themselves naturally. That's the reason for this book. Norman Cousins, author of the book Head First, The Biology of Hope and the Healing Power of the Human Spirit, has this to say.
No one would argue against the logic and necessity for a patient to reach out for the best medical help available. Why then argue against reaching within oneself for the best that the human apothecary, medicine cabinet, has to offer? Reassurance and hope are ways of activating that apothecary. Mind-body pioneers. There have been a handful of brave souls
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that are willing to do the same with the mind-body connection in the treatment of chronic disease as Dr. Bates did with vision. People such as Dr. Herbert Benson, President of the Harvard Institute for Mind-Body Medicine. Norman Cousins, founder of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at UCLA. Bruce Lipton, a molecular biologist and author of The Biology of Belief. Dr. Caroline Leaf, brain research scientist, lecturer, and author.
and Dr. Lyser Rankin, who gave up a career in medicine to pursue a career teaching people to heal themselves by changing the way they think. These people and others are blazing new trails in the healing arts through the mind-body connection. We would do well to follow in their footsteps. Our beliefs and thoughts have the power to heal or to harm. Remember, our bodies are wired for health. What we have to do is get the obstacles out of the way
and let our bodies do what they do naturally. What's going on in our minds can block our body's ability to heal. We can be doing everything right in the physical and not experience the health breakthrough we want if we don't address our thought-wise. This is an integral part of experiencing the healing power of Holism. Now let's examine some limiting beliefs that can really put the brakes on our ability to heal. Chapter 24 Summary
There is a plethora of evidence in the scientific literature that supports holistic health and the mind-body connection. The placebo effect has to be accounted for in every clinical trial and proves that the mind can heal or harm. Most doctors aren't willing to explore the mind-body connection because that's not where the real income is. Some great thinkers have paved the way for us to exploit this powerful addition to our healing arsenals.
Well, that concludes my series on the mind-body connection. Of course, there's more to say in this issue. There's more chapters in my book on this topic. If you enjoyed this series, I think you'll really enjoy my book. You might want to pick up a copy. It's called The Christian's Guide to Holistic Health. It's available on Amazon and hardcover, paperback, Kindle, and Audible. Be sure to tune in on the next episode. I'll be resuming my normal schedule of interesting topics on how to change our lifestyles for the better.
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I'm also going to be bringing some guests on the show in the near future. That's it for now. Thank you for listening. I'll talk with you next time. Be blessed.
