You know theplacebo effect, this process by which patients who think they are taking a real medicine feel the positive effects when it is devoid of active principle. Well this phenomenon would also exist in its negative version. Thinking about the risks of a drug would increase the risk of its side effects occurring, reports the German newspaper SZ Magazin. This nocebo effect would also be valid for certain diseases. Several cases of patients have suffered it. This spiral of negative feelings could increase the risk of have a heart attack or hypertension for example. “For example, American psychologists have been able to prove that the probability of dying from a heart attack is three times higher in women who think they are more likely to have a heart attack”, explains Karl-Heinz Ladwig, cardiology expert at the clinic psychosomatics of the Technical University of Munich, quoted by Slate.
Positive to be in better health?
The consequences can be more or less serious, the worst known example dates back to the 1970s. Doctors diagnose an American with terminal cancer. He died at his home a few weeks later. During the autopsy, the doctors noticed that the tumor had not metastasized. The man would therefore have died not because of his cancer but because he was persuaded to die of cancer?
Perhaps the strength of the mind on the health of patients should be given more consideration by physicians. Because negative thoughts can be self-destructive and increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Conversely, to be more optimistic could make you feel better, according to an American study published in Psychological Science. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in the UK have even suggested that people positive were less at risk of cardiovascular disease and heart attack. What if we try?
>> To read also: Optimism: happier with the Coué method
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