When health is discussed, most people immediately focus on physical well-being, but health is also a state of mental and social well-being; true health is only 1/3 physical. Even if we take amazing care of our bodies, true health can never be achieved unless we have a healthy mind.
The best way to convey the vast power of the mind is by explaining the power of the placebo. Henry Knowles Beecher, M.D., made a huge contribution to our knowledge of the human body when he discovered the placebo effect. Beecher began investigating the relationship between subjective psychological states and objective drug responses during World War II. Beecher was an anesthetist involved in treating wounded soldiers and during the height of the war morphine supplies ran out. In desperation, Beecher injected saline solution
into the wounded soldiers instead of morphine. When the soldiers were injected with the saline, they were told it was morphine and the pain would go away. To Beecher's surprise, shortly after the injection the soldiers reported that the “morphine” eased their pain. Beecher wrote about his findings, stating, “Three-quarters of badly wounded men, although they had received no morphine for hours...have so little pain that they do not want pain relief medication, even though...such is available for asking.” This vital discovery by Beecher lead him to write one of the most influential papers in medicine, The Powerful Placebo, leading to the prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials used as the standard of testing new medicines today.Medical researchers are constantly frustrated with the fact that the drug or surgery they are testing often achieves the same results as a placebo (a fake drug or surgery). More emphasis is now being put on researching why placebos are so effective, yet the answer is simple. Your mind controls your body. Your mind is what controls the healing power in your body. Why is that a cut on our arm heals without us having to think about it, but we are told we cannot heal from an illness or disease without help? Many in our society rely heavily on medicine to "heal" the problems in their bodies and give little credit to the body's own ability to heal itself. When somebody spontaneously heals from a life-threatening disease or an illness without the use of medicine, doctors quickly credit the results as miracle, giving no credit to the body's ability fight the disease and heal itself. The fact is, we are born with an amazing healing power in our bodies, and when the body is functioning properly, it can innately heal itself. It is becoming more and more essential that the accountability of our health is shifted from "bad genetics" and a "pill for every ill" back to the individual. We need to learn when it is necessary to seek emergency medical care and when our bodies can handle it on their own. Everything you do to your body either takes away from health or adds to it; taking away life or adding to it. If we can accept that we are responsible for how well our body functions, we allow ourselves to live a life of true health, living up to our full potential and taking away the constant fear of sickness and disease. When we accept responsibility, we take back control and allow ourselves to live a life that is truly fulfilling.
References:
American Society of Anesthesiologists- http://www.asahq.org/Newsletters/1999/09_99/beecher0999.html
Mary Robinson Reynolds, M.S. http://www.makeadifference.com/publish/articles.php?c=0d14_PEC
