If you think you are going to die, you will die: the Nocebo Effect

A while ago we talked to you about the power of thought in our health.Well, today's article is precisely about the negative effect of thinking .

The placebo effect is widely known, it is a cultural concept through which “magic heals.” That is, through suggestion , the ancient healer or sorcerer healed the sick; the same can be applied in medicine: to the extent that the patient firmly believes that the treatment works, the treatment works .

To the same extent, and by way of reverse the coin is the opposite effect, as real as one: the nocebo effect.

What does it consist of?

If you think something hurts you, you're leaving to get sick if you go to a certain place, that is going to give you the flu because someone in your environment has it… surely you get sick, that doubt fits.When we believe negatively in something that belief ends up harming us, affecting really our health.

If you think you are going to die, you will die: the Nocebo Effect

This is what Dr.Fabrizio Benedetti of the Medical University of Turin says, who has studied the brains of people undergoing nocebo experiments .Like the placebo effect but on the contrary, negative thinking activates areas of the brain directly related to extreme threats to our body, specifically the hypothalamus and the adrenal and pituitary glands, then rolling a chain of unequivocal physical sensations, which would correspond to such dangers ( false dangers).

To verify this, I conduct a controversial experiment with a group of students; More than 100 students were taken to the Italian Alps, 3,000 meters high, and a single boy told him that the lack of oxygen could cause migraine.

This boy commented to others, spreading the rumor to a quarter of the group.Those who heard it effectively suffered from migraines, and an analysis of the saliva was made where an exaggerated response to the conditions of lack of oxygen and a large proliferation of enzymes associated with headaches by height.

This evidenced the biochemical reaction of the brain to stimuli that were believed to be real, but also demonstrated a possible origin of certain unexplained epidemics that have happened throughout history.

So, is the disease cultural, mental, physical...?

You've undoubtedly heard about the voodoo.A scientific explanation about these deep-rooted beliefs and the fear of dying from causes " supernatural ”could be precisely in the noc effect ebo.

If you think you are going to die, you will die: the Nocebo Effect

Likewise, among the indigenous pemon of Venezuela there is a figure capable of doing harm because yes, for the pleasure of killing, this cultural figure these natives call her kanaimas , and are a kind of shamans or people who know the botanical secrets of the plants to do damage, can change shape at will and stalk the unsuspecting who walk unawares in the loneliness of the night.

Many deaths among them are attributed to the kanaimas, and of course, we who are not pemon are immune to this psychological or mental damage and definitely real.

The power of suggestion

This research is very interesting because even scientists cannot fully explain how these effects work in the brain, although they are very common.Many of the effects are secondary Rivers could be classified as subjective, but there are answers that occasionally appear in the form of skin rashes or can be detected in physiological exams.

Medical research suggests that, in many cases, if your fear or your beliefs are strong enough, what is produced in your brain is life-threatening , that is, if you think you are going to die, you will die.

If you think you are going to die, you will die: the Nocebo Effect

There was a fatally famous case in the United States, in the 80s of the last century, in a community of individuals from the Hmong ethnic group who migrated from Southeast Asia; Among them, without previous illnesses, a true epidemic of deaths began after periods of nightmares and sleep paralysis.Many experts adduce a deep-rooted cultural belief in nocturnal demons, which produced an absolute fear and to which they succumb.

If, seen through these studies, the sense of "power of suggestion" takes on another meaning, one that can kill or save.Of course not all diseases have a "false" origin, what is obvious is the effect of negative thinking on our brain.

We invite you to stay in our page reading «What happens to our brain when we wake up sleepwalking«.

Images: ashley rose, , SleEEpinGBeaUty , oliver.sch ▲ ller , Chapendra , Neil Moralee

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