By Emma Suttie D.Ac, AP

What Is The Nocebo Effect?

Have you ever heard of the “nocebo effect”? The nocebo effect is basically the opposite of the placebo effect. Lets define both terms.

The placebo effect is a measurable, observable or felt improvement in health or behaviour which is not attributable to a medication or any procedure that has been administered to the patient.

The nocebo effect is an opposite tendency – and one that has been largely overlooked by the medical/research community. Put simply, the nocebo effect is the phenomenon in which inert substances, suggestions of substances or the words of a medical professional can actually bring about negative effects in a patient or research participant.

The Nocebo Effect And Cancer

The nocebo effect is real and very powerful. I have seen it in action in my practice and in my patients. Nowhere is the nocebo effect more noticeable than with my cancer patients. And in those cases, it was elicited simply with words. Patients aren’t feeling well and go in to the doctor to try to ascertain what is happening. There is testing and then a doctor’s visit to discuss the results. In the session, the doctor tells the patient that they have found something irregular, and that it is cancer. They are told where the cancer is and at what stage it is at according to the staging system which is comprised of four stages. The stages help the doctor to determine the appropriateness and aggressiveness of the treatment required and determine the prognosis, or outcome for the patient. Stage four is the last and most serious stage, meaning that the initial cancer or tumor has spread to other parts of the body (metastasis). And in these discussions, something often happens. The oncologist will tell the patient how long they have left to live or can expect to survive. This is usually *if* they start treatment right away. If they refuse treatment or ask for some time to consider the options, they are often told that the clock is ticking and that they are wasting precious time because death, is racing towards them.

 

Cancer is the extreme example because it evokes such an intense fear response. No one wants to receive a cancer diagnosis, because in many cases they believe that it is literally a death sentence. The truth is, that we are all living with cancer in our bodies every day, and if our immune systems are healthy, then we are fighting it off on a regular basis. It is when the system gets out of balance due to various factors like extreme stress, poor nutrition and sedentary lifestyle that we are no longer able to fight off disease causing agents in the body and things like cancer can develop. The other thing that is important to remember, is that many cancers take between 5-12 years to develop to the point where they are measurable with modern medical equipment.

The Power of the Word

I am not sure if most of us realize how incredibly powerful words can be. The nocebo effect is a clear illustration of their destructive power. At the opposite end of the spectrum, the placebo effect does not only have to be medications, treatments or procedures that have a beneficial effect, it can be the words themselves that do the healing in the body and the psyche. There is a wonderful book that talks about this concept in detail called The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. It is definitely worth a read. In the book it talks about the importance of being impeccable with your word, which means being very careful with what you say, as words can create destruction as well as joy in the person they are being said to (and in the person saying them).

While I was writing my thesis in my last year of Chinese medicine school I read a lot of books on the power of the mind and its ability to heal the body (I wrote about the mind/body connection and how it related to healing). In my reading I discovered many documented cases of people who had been unknowingly living with cancer for many years, and it wasn’t until they got diagnosed that they got sick and died. This got me thinking about the power of words and how important it was to be responsible with my own. In another book I read about how, in some experiments with olympic athletes, they had hooked them up to electrodes that measured their brain activity and muscle activity simultaneously. The athletes were asked to visualize themselves doing their events in their minds. The thing the scientists discovered was that the muscles that they would be using to do their events were firing as if they were actually doing them which led them to conclude that the mind doesn’t know the difference between actually running an event, and visualizing it. What is happening physiologically can be profoundly affected by our thoughts and emotions, which is something that I believe Western or allopathic medicine is just beginning to recognize.

The Nocebo Effect And Chinese Medicine

In Chinese medicine the nocebo effect is well understood. Not by that name, but the integration of all aspects of a person’s being in how it relates to health and wellness are built into the foundation of the medicine. The nocebo effect is a Western term for a phenomenon that the Chinese have understood for thousands of years. Words like “cancer” don’t exist in Chinese medicine, they are a result of a long term imbalance in the system. When things have been out of balance for so long that disease develops, cancer can be the result. In the office of a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner you will discuss many lifestyle options when it comes to your diagnosis and treatment. An extremely detailed initial consultation is one of the ways in which the practitioner can determine where the imbalances lie. The more information that is gathered, the more detailed the entire picture of what is going on with the patient. And, the more information about the patient and how the imbalance was created, the better and more targeted the diagnosis and treatment. One of the reasons that Chinese medicine is still so effective after thousands of years, even for diseases that are attributed to modern living, is that is is based on principles that don’t change. The effect of our physical, psychological and emotional lives all have an impact on our health. What we eat, how much we exercise, how well we sleep… these are the pillars on to which our health and wellbeing are built. And each person is given a thorough intake and therefore receives a very personalized diagnosis and treatment. Cancer is one diagnosis, but there are a million reasons that cancer can develop. It is the job of the TCM (traditional Chinese medicine) practitioner to determine WHY you have that cancer and give you recommendations and lifestyle advice along with acupuncture, Chinese herbs and other modalities to help your body to heal itself. The TCM practitioner believes in the body’s innate ability to heal itself if it is given everything it needs to do so. They are your partners, helping you to find the balance that will bring you back to ultimate health, harmony and happiness.

 

 

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

References 

Smithsonian – www.smithsonianmag.com

 

 

The Nocebo Effect : Chinese Medicine Living