A Healthy Start to a Healthy Year by Vicki Rackner MD

Can your mind help your body keep your New Year’s resolutions?

Mounting evidence says, *Yes.*

The evolving field of psycho-neuroimmunology, or the study of the

mind-body connection - often considered fringe beliefs - could

help you keep your resolutions. This intriguing subject of

scientific inquiry is still shrouded in mystery.

Just as an experiment, put aside your skepticism, pretend that

these ideas could be explained by science, and consider how you

could harness their power to promote your health.

Placebo Effect

When new medications are tested, one group gets the new

medication and another group gets the *sugar pill* or placebo.

Why do this? Study after study shows that if you think you’re

taking real medicine, your body will respond as if it actually

did get the active ingredient, even if it’s a sugar pill.

Somehow the belief in the power of the medicine creates the

desired outcome of lowered blood pressure or heart rate or weight

loss in about a third of people. Is this science? Yes. Is this

mind-body medicine? Yes.

Let your beliefs help your body achieve your desired goals. If

regular exercise is your goal, tell yourself, *I’m invigorated by

my daily 20 minute walk.* The placebo effect suggests that your

belief that you have more energy with regular exercise makes it

so.

Nocebo Effect

In November 1998, a teacher noticed a *gasoline-like* smell in

her classroom, and soon thereafter she had a headache, nausea and

dizziness. Given the concern about a toxic environmental

substance, the school was evacuated and closed for 5 days.

Almost 200 students and teachers were seen in the ER for similar

symptoms. But no environmental cause was ever identified. One

explanation is that the belief that a toxic exposure occurred led

to the symptoms, or the nocebo effect. This is the flip side of

the placebo effect.

I reflected on this study as I was waiting with my son for his

turn in the dental chair. He repeated, *It’s going to hurt; it’s

going to hurt.* I suggested to him that he might be better served

by saying, *It’s going to be fine; it’s going to be fine.*

Has the nocebo effect undermined your New Year’s resolutions in

the past? Barry saw this in action last March as he told

himself,*I hate to exercise.* He made a commitment to daily

walks in January and talked himself out of them before the winter

snow melted.

Harness the power of the placebo effect and minimize the nocebo

effect this year, even if your resolution is something

challenging like smoking cessation. In years past you might have

told yourself, *This never works. I’ll never be a non-smoker.*

Go to Page 2

BIO:

Vicki Rackner, MD, president of Medical Bridges, is a board-
certified surgeon who left the operating room to help employees
become active participants in their health care. She is a
consultant, speaker and author of the *Personal Health Journal*. Dr. Rackner can be reached at
http://www.MedicalBridges.com or (425) 451-3777.

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