People diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are usually taking some form of medication, supplements, diets… something they hope will help keep the MS at bay.
What if there is a way to have more control over how your body responds to the treatments you choose?
In this article on multiple sclerosis, we are going to talk about how to do just that. Supercharge whatever you are taking for your health – be it Copaxone, CBD, vegan diets, etc. – to improve its effectiveness.
Are you hoping it will help or are you expecting it to work?
Most people take their medication and supplements in the hopes it will help. They don’t realize that that attitude mingled with doubt can keep their bodies from responding optimally. Additionally, not being very convinced also leads to less compliance and continuity with your treatment regime. So how to change that?
The New Science of Psychoneuroimmunology
Change your mindset. The science of psychoneuroimmunology (PNL) studies the interrelationship between the states of the mind, the immune system, and the nervous system. This science has shown how the mind – what we think, believe, expect, etc. – can influence the body.
In one early study of PNL, Ader gave mice an immune suppressant mixed into sugar water. When the mice had taken the suppressant for a short period, he stopped providing them with it but continued to provide them with the sugar water. Their bodies continued to react to the sugar water as if it had the suppressant and many of the mice died.
In a recent case study, a pediatrist had a young girl who was deathly ill. He had to give her a very powerful immune booster to help her body heal. The drug, however, had very detrimental side effects that he knew could cause organ failure to his patient as she was already so weak. So he gave her the drug mixed in with a very peculiar tasting water for only a short time and then continued to have her drink the peculiar tasting water alone. The body responded to the water as if it was still receiving the immune booster without overloading her body with side effects.
Placebos
The expectation the mice and the girl had to the water has been coined conditioned response. It might just be that conditioning that has made placebos more and more powerful. We are so conditioned to take medication when we are sick, that that expectation is half of the reason they work.
The strength of this conditioning and expectation also influence the success of surgery, even when the surgery is a placebo.
Belief That it Will Work and You are Halfway There
PNL has shown that the mind’s influence can be just as powerful if the patient is aware it’s fake. Ellen Langer proved that in her Counterclockwise Study. In this study, 70-year-olds pretended they were 50. They stayed at a retreat center for one week. They talked, shared old memories as they had just happened, watched old shows, and read magazines that existed at the time they were 50. The mere acting as if they were 50 created physical changes in their bodies after only a week. Their hearing, memory, and grip strength improved. They even looked noticeably younger.
In another study, also by Ellen Langer, hotel chambermaids where shown that the work they did all day was equivalent to going to the gym 8-hours a day. After 30-days of thinking about their work as exercise, the chambermaids had lost weight, had improved waist to hip ratio and body mass index, and a decrease in blood pressure.
How You Think About What You Take Can Effect Its Effectiveness
In essence, this article on multiple sclerosis wants you to understand that how you think about what you do for your body and your health can influence the outcome. So how do you supercharge your Copaxone?
1. Make a list of your remedies
Take a moment to write down what you are taking for your multiple sclerosis. Make sure to include everything from medication, supplements, naps, physical therapy, diets, and prayer.
2. Review Your Mindset
Are you taking these items to heal or taking it to avoid getting worse? Are you hoping they will work or are you expecting them to?
3. Create an Intentional Healing Mindset
Decide what you are going to take that will help you get healthy. Hold that intention every time you take it. Make sure that your attitude, while you are taking it, is positive and moving towards health.
One way to do this that Eva M Clark explains in the video is to understand how your mind knows something will work and then applying that same attitude to what you are taking for your MS. For example, if you know that Tylenol works for your headaches or fennel tea for indigestion, use those as examples of remedies you take that you know work. Think about those remedies one at a time and notice how you think about them. Do you envision how good you will feel afterward? Is it like a movie of you getting better and better? Or a snapshot of you jumping out of bed? Or, when you think about how you know that they will work, are you remembering all those previous times they worked like pictures in an album or like videos in a rear view mirror?
Now apply that same way you think about remedies that you know will work to the items you are taking to help your body heal from multiple sclerosis.
The act of changing your mindset and how you think about what you are taking will improve their effectiveness and create greater health.
This presentation and blog is part of our series, Creating Health. If you would like to receive these videos in your inbox each month as we create them, please sign up for our Newsletter.
If you are following the series, please share your experience with others. Doing this in community makes the journey so much better!
This series for multiple sclerosis health is being recorded at the National MS Society Self-Help MS Group in Santa Cruz, CA. The National MS Society respects the rights of people with MS to obtain any and all information they want related to MS, including information on wellness, medical treatments or complementary therapies, and products or services. The information presented at these meeting does not necessarily reflect the views or official position of the Society, nor carry the endorsement or support of the NMSS.
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