Beliefs Are Numero Uno for Changing Your Brain

Nice summary in link below by Dr. Siegel from Harvard about the power of the placebo. What is the placebo: Your beliefs. With chronic pain that doesn’t go away, we know the brain has been shown to be a big part of persistent pain. When I work with chronic issues, one the first things I look at are patients beliefs about what’s happening. Changing one’s beliefs is numero uno for initiating a change in the brain, which then affects the body.

Here’s a quote from Dr. Siegel on a 2018 study looking at sham heart surgery for angina:

“The results were stunning—the same success rate of angina pain relief from the actual surgery were reported after the sham surgery. Eighty to 90 percent of patients claimed the surgery had successfully alleviated their angina.”

https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/new-study-on-placebo-effect-prompts-look-at-power-of-belief/