How your thoughts affect your health
If you’ve ever felt your heart pound prior to a big presentation or your face warm after saying something embarrassing, then you’re already familiar with how powerful that thoughts can be on the body. The “nocebo” effect (“I will harm”) and the “placebo” effect (“I will please”) have been regarded as such powerful forces that credible scientific research often require control groups to rule out results that may have been altered by them. Studies have shown time and time again that the effects of the mind over our bodies are profound. So the question arises; what implications does this have on our health? When thinking negative thoughts, we can cause our bodies to release chemical signals that do harm. In a 1997 study conducted by neurophysiologist Fabrizio Bendetti, consenting patients were injected with normal saline but told that it was a pain-triggering medication. Some of those patients also received anti-anxiety drugs to block negative thoughts. Only the group that did ...