~~For years I have had patients who would question me as to whether their health improvement was due to the supplement that I had given to them, or perhaps their adjustment, or maybe the exercise that they had begun. Sometimes they may question whether it was a dietary or lifestyle change that they had made, or perhaps even a magnet or copper bracelet that they had purchased on the internet which I was totally unaware of. In each and every case I have always responded in the same way by saying; "I don't really know, and I don't care as long as you are getting better. That is all that matters to me."
You see I am a clinician, not a researcher. Therefore, the results are what matter to me, and not necessarily the reasons. As long as our patients get better, both we and they are happy.
However, after reading an article written by Lewis Mehi-Madrona, MD, PhD, and Barbara Mainguy, MA, I began to think about this phenomenon. The article was titled "Placebo and the Healing Relationship". In it the doctor referenced the power of what we had always called the placebo effect. This is something that both physicians and researchers acknowledged, but considered to be an aberration, or even a downright annoyance when clinical research was being conducted, since it might skew the outcome of the study.
The reason that I tied this concept in with our "Think Right" is because as I have taught and written about for years the "body-mind" is an interrelated entity which cannot be separated into individual components. The philosophy of the body and the mind being separate entities has been taught since the inception of standardized medical education. This belief however is being repetitively disproven as more and more research into the interrelationship of the two entities is being conducted.
So, how much of this positive healing effect in fact comes from a simple concept which is being lost in our current disease and sickness system, which we are unfortunately still referring to as our healthcare delivery system? This concept, put quite simply, is that the "doctor-patient relationship" can and does have a significant impact on the outcome of a patient's case. In fact Dr. Mehi-Madrona sites research in which a patient who received no treatment, but had a positive consultation with the doctor, demonstrated an improvement 64% of the time. The study sited was published in the British journal, The Lancet. The lead researcher stated that; "The placebo effect in general practice is the power of the doctor alone to make the patient feel better, irrespective of medication. It is one of the most important factors in the consultation, yet generally is neglected, unrecognized, and untaught. A better appreciation of this power would change doctors' attitudes [toward] the consultation and would result in the making of less illness, the prescribing of less medication, and a better understanding by the patient of his or her condition."
Once again my intention in reviewing this information with you is to emphasize that healing power which lies between your ears. The mind's control over the body can be seen each and every day in relationship to patients' overall Health and Wellness. Call it a patient's "will" if you would like, but it is the recurrent theme that is seen from a terminally ill octogenarian "holding out" until Christmas or an Anniversary before "finally letting go", to the individual who has given up as a "hopeless case" only to recover fully to the amazement of the doctors.
This is that innate power we all possess, in action. Unfortunately, it often remains untapped, or underutilized by many.
In the final analysis of this component of our "Think Right" we must all realize that perhaps each and every one of us has the ultimate control and power to truly rule our destiny, regardless of the label or diagnosis given to a specific condition or group of signs and symptoms.
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