It is now widely believed that many illnesses - including chronic inflammatory conditions - could even be cured from just believing that you are better.
That believing and acting and truly hoping your illness will go into remission will actually induce remission.
I am no expert here, and I am always touting how anecdotal evidence does not equate proof, so my own experience wouldn't necessarily add anything.
I think that it is possible for one's psychological state to provide some of the means required to promote healing - minus additional medication - but I do not believe it is possible in every case.
In my own, very humble opinion, I believe these are mere coincidences.
I do believe that, for people who suffer from illnesses and diseases that are directly caused by stress, or are so heavily correlated that the difference is nearly impossible to prove, some illnesses can be directly improved by a lack of stress. This lack of stress can increase the body's propensity to heal itself.
Yes I agree it's possible.
If someone has severe physical responses to stress - inflammatory, damaging, painful responses to stress - then lowering stress by believing nothing is wrong, then yes that inflammation/damage/pain (directly caused by stress) will heal on its own.
We have only just begun to understand the several varieties of inflammatory conditions, and are years and years away from fully comprehending each facet of what is assumed to be multiple causes of chronic inflammatory conditions.
As anecdotes go, there are just as many people, who have believed in being better whose diseases did not heal, as those who claim to be healed.
And let me get this out of the way: claiming that a person did not truly believe if they are still ill ... or saying that they did it wrong... These claims are complete copouts.
There is one absolute constant in the world of chronic illness:
Each individual disease behaves differently.
Every person suffers differently from disease, each person has a completely unique response to medications/supplements/treatments. Flare-ups differ, timing differs, the stress that effects it differs, symptoms vary greatly...
Everyone is different.
Inflammatory diseases are so complex, and experiences differ so much, how can we possibly believe we can find a 'universal cure' if we don't even have a universal cause.
I have my own theories, but I have no real evidence or any idea to even begin to test my own theories... and these are theories based on other theories mixed with personal experience.
I don't claim to know how to fix it.
But much of science is simply disproving theories before coming up with new ones, right?
So if we have a theory based on placebo and anecdotal evidence, can't I disprove it by anecdotal evidence?
(Okay okay I know that's not how it works... I'll make my point now).
My anecdotal evidence:
I spent two full months believing that I was healed - completely healed of Inflammatory Bowel Disease. I went about my life thinking I had been healed. My large intestine was removed, leaving me with a temporary ileostomy, and then with an internal J-Pouch made from my small intestine. This procedure was thought the only way to cure Ulcerative Colitis.
Back then it was believed that once the large colon was removed, it was gone, and that you could only suffer from one disease or the other - either Ulcerative Colitis OR Crohn's Disease. For a long time they believed that anyone who later developed Crohn's Disease after a colectomy had been misdiagnosed, and not that they simply developed the other disease.
Within the two months I was recuperating, I developed similar symptoms... not exact.... but very similar.
I am technically diagnosed with three separate illnesses under the umbrella of IBD. Two separate illnesses, two separate results on biopsies, three illness categorizations and three separate effectual treatments that keep things less flared.
Ulcerative Colitis still resides in the stump leftover from the colectomy surgery. This flares up and is best controlled with sporadic doses of Cortifoam.
Chronic Pouchitis is in the J-Pouch. It is essentially Ulcerative Colitis -> but without the colon it requires a different designation. This is kept milder with antibiotics. Removal off of these medications will result in the disease becoming severe within the second day of no treatment. It becomes an instant flare and can take up to a year to finally settle back down. (Sometimes even longer).
Crohn's Disease resides above the J-Pouch. This is better controlled with Methotrexate. Without Methotrexate, the cramping pain and deeper pain/damage occurs.
If I really thought it were true, that just believing a person is cured is exactly the reason that person is cured or has experienced remission, I would not say anything.
There are certain illnesses that I think can be effected in such a way (or similarly), and I believe that some people just got lucky. There is luck and coincidence, when people find themselves in remission exactly when they believed they would....
But then there are those other people who believed wholeheartedly that they were healed or cured or better... who didn't get better.
There are people are on both sides.
My only advice is to refrain from refusing medical intervention and only relying on the mind, for one side. For the other side, do not take something that does not make a difference for your disease or your quality of life.
Basically, please don't refuse medical attention, and don't continue to take something if it has not made an improvement.
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