Does Belief Create Reality?
My brother and I often joke that company will come up with a new pill called “Pla-ce-bo” claiming that it will cure anything and everything you want it to.
The marketing campaign would go something like this:
“High blood pressure? Arthritis? Gout? Feeling sad? Feeling sluggish? Want to lose a few pounds?”
“No problem. Just take two Pla-ce-bo and all your problems will magically go away.”
“Pla-ce-bo has thousands of scientific research studies proving it works!”
Placebo
| Where does “placebo” come from?
The Latin word for “to please” is placere. In 1785, “placebo” was first recorded as “a medicine given more to please than to benefit the patient.” |
I’m sure you all realized that Pla-ce-bo is just placebo with a few dashes throw in, but what’s more surprising is all those claims are true.
Before I go on, let’s clarify what exactly the placebo effect is and what it does. The placebo effect is any phenomenon that occurs from a person’s belief and perceptions, rather than from the actual chemical-physiological effects of a drug.
In this case, the old adage, “Just because you believe it’s true doesn’t make it so” is wrong – belief is everything.
While it’s no secret that placebos have an effect, the magnitude of their effect may shock you. For example, in anti-depressant drugs 68% of their effect is placebo[1]. Huh?
Let’s say you took an anti-depressant drug and felt 100% better. Great! Fantastic what a super drug!
Not so fast.
Let’s say a second person takes the placebo version of this drug and feels 68% better. Remember, the placebo has no actual medication or active ingredient. So, this person really feels better… but it can’t possibly be from any substance in the drug.
On the other hand, let’s say a third person takes the real drug, but they don’t know. (Maybe we sneak it into their food.) This third person only feels 32% better.
Comparing these three groups we can see that your 100% is actually 32% actual medical effects plus 68% placebo.
Scientists have even come up with a new type of placebo called nocebo: that’s when negative side effects happen from the placebo.
Placebo: Beyond the little white sugar pill
The placebo effect isn’t limited to pills. You can have a placebo effect for a whole bunch of things.
In one case they used fake poison ivy and people developed real rashes [2].
Convinced you got caffeinated coffee instead of the decaf you ordered? That belief is enough to increase motor performance, heart rate and anything else you think should happen when you drink regular caffeinated coffee even if there isn’t any caffeine at all [3].
A woman lost almost 85 pounds and beat diabetes -– after being hypnotized into believing that she had a gastric band fitted [4].
The list goes on and on.
The placebo effect of exercise
It’s well established that exercise is good for you pretty much across the board, but could any of its benefit be from your belief?
In a 10 week exercise study, half the group was told that the exercise program was specifically designed to not only improve physical well being, but also psychological well being. The other half were only told about the physical benefits of the program.
I’m sure by now you have a pretty good idea of what happened. Both groups were fitter, but only the group that were told they should feel better had psychological improvement. This group ended up with higher self esteem [5].
Cool — by just suggesting that exercise could help with other things, you can get improvement in those things.
What happens if people just think they are exercising more? Can thinking you’re exercising more make you healthier without actually exercising more?
I’m sure now you think I’m off my rocker. How can you think you’re exercising more without actually doing it? Well, you’ll have to read this week’s review to find out.
Crum AJ, Langer EJ. Mind-set matters: exercise and the placebo effect. Psychol Sci. 2007 Feb;18(2):165-71.
Methods
Eighty-four (84) women who worked at hotels as room attendants (maids) were either in the control group or in the informed group.
The informed group was told the truth: that the Surgeon General guidelines (from 1996) says at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day, every day, is needed for a healthy lifestyle. And this group was told that during their work day they exceed these requirements – all true.
If you do a lot of housework you know that cleaning rooms can be physically demanding.
On average each attendant cleans 15 rooms a day with each room taking between 20-30 minutes. Cleaning includes:
- Changing linens: on average 15 minutes burns 40 calories
- Vacuuming: on average 15 minutes burns 50 calories
- Cleaning bathroom: on average 15 minutes burns 60 calories
There’s lots of lifting, pushing, hauling, carrying, and walking.
Meanwhile, the control group goes along their business. The researchers tell them nothing about their job and how active they really are while doing it.
The researchers measured weight, BMI, % body fat, waist to hip ratio and blood pressure before and 4 weeks after they told the attendants they were actually doing exercise when they worked.
Results
Four weeks after being told they were active the informed group lost weight, body fat, had improved BMI, waist-to-hip ratio and blood pressure. Not bad for changing nothing but perception.
Figure 1-3 are graphs of the change of weight, body fat and blood pressure in the informed and control groups. Looks pretty impressive, but I’ll point out a few things.
In Figure 1 below, the informed group lost almost 2 pounds (less than a kilogram) compared to about 0.2 pounds in the control. While 2 pounds isn’t very much, it’s pretty impressive considering there was no change in diet or activity.
Figure 1 – Change in weight of the informed and control group. Based on data from Crum & Langer 2007.
The next graph, Figure 2 below, shows the change in percent body fat. You can see that the informed group lost a tiny bit of % body fat (around 0.5%) and the control gained even less (around 0.2%).
Now, if you’ve ever tried to measure body fat, you know that seeing a 1% difference is pretty hard, let alone 0.5%, so for that reason I don’t really believe that there is a difference between these groups.
Figure 2 – Change in percent body fat of the informed and control group. Based on data from Crum & Langer 2007.
In Figure 3 below, you can see nearly a 10 point improvement (drop) in systolic blood pressure (the big or first number) for the informed group and about 1.5 point drop for the control.
This measure is the most compelling of all and probably the reason, either directly or indirectly, for all other changes.
Chances are that the informed group is less stressed, because of the good news that they are exercising enough to stay healthy. That’s probably why we see improvements in blood pressure, weight, body fat, BMI and waist-to-hip ratio.
Figure 3 – Change in systolic blood pressure of the informed and control group. Based on data from Crum & Langer 2007.
Summary
This study shows that believing you are acting healthy really improves your health without actually changing any behaviour.
Simply informing people that they are in fact exercising — without changing lifestyle — improves health!
Telling cleaners that the work they do every day is enough physical activity to meet the Surgeon General’s recommendations led to improved blood pressure and body composition without any changes in lifestyle. Granted, the results weren’t huge; a couple pounds lost and a 10 point drop in systolic blood pressure were the most compelling results. But still — pretty impressive effect from just a few words.
Bottom line
What you believe can become real.
Your perception of yourself and your environment has a definite, measurable impact on your health. Believing and living a healthy lifestyle is more beneficial than either one alone.
References
- Rief W, Nestoriuc Y, Weiss S, Welzel E, Barsky AJ, Hofmann SG. Meta-analysis of the placebo response in antidepressant trials. J Affect Disord. 2009 Nov;118(1-3):1-8. Epub 2009 Feb 26.
- Blakeslee, S. Placebos prove so powerful even experts are surprised. New York Times Science Times, Fl. 1998. Oct 13.
- Kirsch I and Sapirstein G. Listening to Prozac but hearing placebo: A meta-analysis of antidepressant medication. Prevention & Treatment. 1998.
- Suggested weight loss. Globe and Mail. Thursday, Apr. 08, 2010.
- Plante TG, Lantis A, Checa G. The influence of perceived versus aerobic fitness on psychological health and physiological stress responsivity. International Journal of Stress Management 1998 5:141-156.