rethinking the placebo effect_ how our minds actually affect our bodies _ brain pickings

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.



Illustration by Marianne Dubuc from 'The Lion and the Bird.' Click image for



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.



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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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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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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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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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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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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