Can the Mind Heal the Body? | INFJ Forum

Can the Mind Heal the Body?

I believe in the present time the mind can heal the body to a degree. I also believe we as a species have the capacity to heal ourselves and others but we haven't evolved enough yet to do so. Just how much we can heal ourselves and others, I'm not sure.

Our bodies seem to run like any other complex mechanism, each part is dependent on and part of another. A great car wouldn't run well if you put bad gas in it (diet). You could have a great looking car but if it had weak machinery (genetics) it would have challenges. If you didn't drive (exercise) a car enough, seals, etc. would go bad. And then accidents happen and parts wear out, so professional mechanics (doctors) are needed to fix broken and worn out parts. But also, our bodies might not heal without our belief in its ability to do so. The power of belief.

So, it seems, our minds can heal our bodies to a degree by focusing our attention on; diet, exercise, genetics, our belief system, and choosing appropriate professionals to help us. What about healing through actively focusing the mind on what needs to be healed, such as creative visualization or just creativity in general. There might be more in the realm of where creativity resides that can be tapped into for physical healing. Something beyond creativity...
 
If we were to learn to first heal the world, we would better understand our minds' abilities. Thinking about "down the road" helps turn a Big Mac attack into something healthier and of lesser quantities. Keep that heart beating and those limbs moving. Keep the brain thinking. Fix the world by stopping the misuse of it. Don't misuse our minds and bodies.
 
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Placebo effect.

Abstract

Although placebos have long been considered a nuisance in clinical research, today they represent an active and productive field of research and, because of the involvement of many mechanisms, the study of the placebo effect can actually be viewed as a melting pot of concepts and ideas for neuroscience. Indeed, there exists not a single but many placebo effects, with different mechanisms and in different systems, medical conditions, and therapeutic interventions. For example, brain mechanisms of expectation, anxiety, and reward are all involved, as well as a variety of learning phenomena, such as Pavlovian conditioning, cognitive, and social learning. There is also some experimental evidence of different genetic variants in placebo responsiveness. The most productive models to better understand the neurobiology of the placebo effect are pain and Parkinson's disease. In these medical conditions, the neural networks that are involved have been identified: that is, the opioidergic–cholecystokinergic–dopaminergic modulatory network in pain and part of the basal ganglia circuitry in Parkinson's disease. Important clinical implications emerge from these recent advances in placebo research. First, as the placebo effect is basically a psychosocial context effect, these data indicate that different social stimuli, such as words and rituals of the therapeutic act, may change the chemistry and circuitry of the patient's brain. Second, the mechanisms that are activated by placebos are the same as those activated by drugs, which suggests a cognitive/affective interference with drug action. Third, if prefrontal functioning is impaired, placebo responses are reduced or totally lacking, as occurs in dementia of the Alzheimer's type.
Fabrizio Benedetti et al
Click to expand...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3055515/
 
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Stress is the silent killer. And stress is something that exists in the mind. When you are stressed, cortisol builds up in your body. And when cortisol levels are too high, the other important chemicals related to mental health become suppressed. Four of these chemicals are dopamine, endorphins, serotonin, and oxytocin, these are the chemicals responsible for making us feel rewarded for our accomplishments. Without sufficient amounts of these chemicals it becomes difficult to find any meaning in life, life becomes unrewarding.

When life is unrewarding, you stop exercising, you stop eating healthy, you stop wanting to socialize, you stop wanting to live.

And when you stop living, you start dying. I'm not speaking in the literal for the idiots who are too dumb to realize what I'm saying. I'm saying that when you start losing enthusiasm for life, it shows physically in your body. And you will lose years off of your life.

So can the mind heal the body??? Most of the time yes. Some people with physical health issues just need to develop a different attitude about life but can't because they are trapped in a deadly cycle of depression and don't have the knowledge/tools to fight it effectively.

Can the mind heal illnesses like HIV? Obviously not. Once you have it you have it for life until there is a cure.
 
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[MENTION=14458]veryINFJ[/MENTION], good point about the effects of stress on the body - how true, thanks.
 
Yes, I think that there is mounting evidence that it's possible. I'm often coming across studies on the benefits of neuroplasticity and spinal chord health on Parkinson's mobility, brain injuries, eyesight, pain reduction, and other physical and cognitive impairments that are gradually improved through therapies and physical exercise.
 
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The reason many drugs work, prescribed or otherwise, is because we have receptors in our brains that the drugs attach to. The reason we have these receptors is we create our own drugs in our bodies that pair with these receptors.

We can create many of these drugs with our imagination and beliefs. Like how adrenalin would be produced if you believed you were about to be eaten by a tiger. Many drugs imitate these natural chemicals.

Many prescribed drugs are imitation placebo effects.

The mind can and does cause illnesses and heal illnesses
 
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I read somewhere that some humans are entirely capable of laying down and dying, as an authentic deathwish, and that some Aboriginal people have been observed to do this in response to "pointing the bone". I think it's also sometimes called "dying of a broken heart". I haven't really read deeply or read any scientific literature on this, but I think it's a very interesting idea, and I personally believe it's possible. I'm personally slightly more skeptical about the mind healing the body, but these are interesting ideas.
 
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