Physician Heal Thyself: Exploiting The Placebo Effect

Most people are familiar with the placebo effect and how it is effectively a case of mind over matter. During trials for clinical medicines, patients will be split into groups where one group receives the actual medicine being tested and the other group receives a placebo, a sugar coated pill that contains no medicine at all. Results show that the group that takes the placebo often exhibit signs of recovery or an improvement in their health. These results show that a patient's mindset can sometimes be just as influential for their recovery as the actual medicine.

There is also an opposite effect to the placebo effect known as the 'nocebo' effect. Let's suppose someone mentions you look a bit pale today. Suddenly you start to worry you might be ill, the more you think about the fact you may be ill, the more you start to make yourself ill until you actually end up becoming ill!

You don't need to be in a clinical trial to benefit from the placebo effect, it can be used to help with healing from many different health conditions. Through the use of a simple technique you can apply it to yourself and help to alleviate your suffering.

• The first thing you need to do is relax, starting with diaphragmatic breathing.

  
  

• Place your tongue in the top of your mouth and let it relax.

  
  

• Next breathe in through the nose and push your belly out and down through your groin towards the floor.

  
  

• Hold your breath for a count of 4 seconds then exhale slowly through the nose, pulling the belly right back in as you do.

  
  

• Repeat this for a couple of minutes and focus on feeling your whole body relax, feel all the tension and stress just flow out of your body.

  
  

For the purposes of this blog I shall use back pain as an example. You can apply this technique to literally any part of your body, whether internal or external. If the pain is not in your back then you do not need to lie on the floor, unless you want to.

• Lie on the floor with the soles of your feet flat on the floor and your knees bent at 90 degrees.

• Your arms should be at your sides, flat on the floor.
  

• Place something like a book under your head to provide support, you can use anything but it should be about 2 inches thick to keep the head slightly lifted off of the floor.

  
  

• Continue to breathe abdominally and relax, as you do make an image in your mind of your spine and say to yourself ' Let the back be free ...let the back relax ...let the spine be free ....let the spine relax ....let the spine lengthen and widen'

  
  

• As you say these words to yourself picture your spine relaxing. I like to use the analogy of a squashed sponge returning to it's original shape.

  
  

• Imagine that stress and pain are squeezing your spine and as it relaxes it returns to it's original and proper shape. Gravity pulls on our bodies throughout the day, causing us to end up an inch shorter by evening. This shortening of the spine can cause serious issues.

  
  

• Imagine your spine lengthening and widening as it relaxes, returing to it's proper shape.
  

• Picture the discs between the vertebrae like sponges that are squashed, slowly retaking their intended form.
  

• Keep this image in your mind and keep repeating the phrases over and over.

There's no time limit for this exercise, you can do it for as long as you want.

You may not notice anything instantly but it should slowly start to ease up.

Upon suffering an injury of health issue, most people tend to think negatively. They focus on the problem and allow it to rule their life. People tend to become tense and focus on the pain, they start focusing on the negative outcomes of their issue but this ends up being detrimental to their recovery. By becoming more mindful of how our mind can influence reality, the placebo effect can really make a difference if it is applied properly.

All you need to do is focus on the issue and relax that part of your body, if it's an internal organ, focus on the organ. If it's skeletal, focus on the bone that is an issue. If it's muscular focus on the muscles that are experiencing the problem. This technique will not simply 'cure' you if you have something wrong with you but it will have an influence on your recovery and the suffering you experience and should hopefully help you to make a quicker recovery.

This blog is not intended as medical advice and you should always consult a specialist if you have health issues that are serious or persistent.