A positive attitude in life is not only essential for career development and success, in fact according a new study published in Science Translational Medicine, pessimism can determine whether a drug works for you or not. According to the study, a patient’s belief that a drug will not work can become a self fulfilling prophecy.
What this means that if one expects that a tablet of ibuprofen will do nothing to alleviate his or her pain, the body may actually not experience any benefit from taking the pill. Simply put, you can change the outcome of the drug by manipulating your thoughts and expectations. It all boils down to the state of mind.
I’ve summarized the study for you below
The experimental Setup:
The researchers assembled 22 patients for the study. At the beginning of the experiments, heat was applied to the legs of the patients. On a scale of 1 to 100, the patients were then asked to report the level of pain. Then the patients were attached to an intravenous drip in order to administer drugs to them in secret.
The Result:
The initial average pain rating was 66. After the patients were given remifentanil, which is a potent painkiller, without their knowledge, the pain score went down to 55.
They were then told they were being given a painkiller and the score went down to 39.
Then, without changing the dose, the patients were then told the painkiller had been withdrawn and so they should expect pain. The score went up to 64.
So even though the patients were being given remifentanil, they were reporting the same level of pain as when they were getting no drugs at all.
The conclusion (mine)?
Your brain or state of mind plays a big role in the way you perceive pain, feel your environment and even acknowledge the effect of sickness. In essence, there is a cognitive side of sickness. If the magic pill that works for everybody isn’t working for you, it may be time to recondition your thought rather than switch doctors or blame the drug manufacturer.
But the bigger picture here is the need to acknowledge how pessimism can derail your progress in several facets of life. If nothing is working, it may all be in your mind.
Begin to think positively; you won’t lose anything if you find out your were wrong. Someone once said
“In the long run the pessimist may be proved right, but the optimist has a better time on the trip.”
The Bible says as a man thinks of himself so is he. It is the same idea motivational speakers and positive thinking theorist propagate. You can change your mind to change your situation.