This article, Why Health Warnings Can Be Bad by Stuart Blackman, that appeared in the Financial Times on Saturday is a great reminder of the power of our mind in illness. Taken directly from the article:
…research has been accumulating that the nocebo effect – the evil twin of the better-known placebo effect – is a widespread phenomenon that affects many aspects of our lives and which might contribute to a host of 21st-century ailments, from food allergies to obesity, chronic fatigue, back pain and electrosensitivity. Some experts are concerned that the situation is being compounded by the efforts of health professionals to raise awareness of threats. “When someone receives a placebo and they get better, it’s because of a variety of self-healing processes in the body that are cognition-related,” says Brian Hughes, a psychologist at the National University of Ireland, Galway, who specialises in how mental stress affects physical health. “One expects to get healed and certain symptoms go away.” In the case of the nocebo, it is negative expectations that become self-fulfilling prophecies.
Read my thoughts after the jump…
I think that this thinking can undermine those of us that have symptoms that can be very much attributed to physical causes as well as undermine the reality of certain diseases. Yes perhaps there are many people with claimed illnesses that are psychosomatic, yet many are not. The article talks about electromagnetic sensitivity in particular. I do not doubt that electromagnetic sensitivity is real. If you look at the studies done by Dr. Carlo, you will see that cell phone radiation does have an effect on the cell level of our bodies. It is important not to freak out about this though.
I do agree with Stuart Blackman in that many of us do exacerbate our symptoms by the beliefs that we hold in our mind. If we believe that cell phones are dangerous then we are going to feel the effects of this belief manifesting itself in various symptoms. I remember how my electromagnetic sensitivities flared up after attending a seminar that talked about the health effects from exposure. Yet, I do not believe all my symptoms are psychological. I am one of those people that can tell you if a cell phone is on or off without error by noticing changes in my body. But, it is important not to be fearful of these things in our environment. The phrase ‘worried sick’ can hold very true for a lot of us. We have to remember that our bodies are amazing and can handle much more stress then we sometimes give it credit for.
Just remember that as you study and learn more about the toxins in your home, food or body that you do not react and get scared about it. It is very important to take steps to reduce exposure to the toxins that we are exposed to, yet they are going to have more of an effect on us if we are scared of them. All illness has mental and physical components. If we can address the mental causes, then we are that much better off. This was a great article to remind us of that.
Read the rest of the article here.
My words of wisdom: Believe in love, in possibility, in going after your dreams, in never stopping, in not existing but living - fully, unapologetically and wildly, believe that all is good, and always trust your gut. 
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