How do our thoughts influence our physical sensations?
—Davide Razzoli, Italy
Jeannine Stamatakis, an instructor at several colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area, explains:
You may have noticed that when you think positively, you tend to feel more relaxed and energetic. When you are upset, you are more likely to feel tired and lazy. These sensations are not coincidental. The way we think—our attitudes and outlook on life—strongly affects our physical state.
The endocrine system, a network of glands that secretes different hormones into the bloodstream, is the powerhouse that regulates our moods. The feelings you associate with being angry, for example, arise from the stress hormones, such as cortisol and norepinephrine, that your brain releases on registering indignation. These hormones release stored energy and increase the amount of blood flowing to your muscles, which in turn elevates your heart rate, blood pressure and breathing while shutting down key metabolic processes, such as digestion and growth.
Similarly, endorphins alter your happiness. An endorphin release causes a natural high, commonly known as an endorphin rush or a runner’s high. This high is associated with elevated mood and reduced pain. A brain-imaging experiment by neuroscientist Henning Boecker of the University of Bonn in Germany showed that after highly conditioned male athletes completed two hours of endurance running, they exhibited elevated levels of endorphins in their brain and that an increase in these hormones was associated with the runners’ intense feelings of euphoria.
In short, making an effort to think positively, even if doing so feels like a strain, is vital to keeping your body healthy. Take the uplifting example of Norman Cousins, former editor of the now defunct Saturday Review. Cousins was told that he had ankylosing spondylitis, a painful and degenerative spine disease that typically affords sufferers a one-in-500 chance of survival. His doctor predicted that he had six months to live, but Cousins refused to accept the diagnosis. He surrounded himself with family and friends, watched numerous comedy films and sought out positive affirmations. Cousins ended up beating the odds and lived 26 years after his diagnosis. Although it is impossible to know whether his survival hinged on his positive thinking rather than genetic or medical factors, Cousins’s case suggests that an intensely optimistic outlook can help alter physical health.
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm surprised to see a story in Scientific American using Norman Cousins as evidence for the power of positive thinking. 1) It's anecdotal, 2) as the author notes, 1 in 500 do survive, 3) a search shows that the diagnosis is in doubt (e.g. Wikipedia). I hope editors will catch this sort of thing in the future.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA scientist would never write, "Although it is impossible to know whether his survival hinged on his positive thinking rather than genetic or medical factors, Cousins’s case suggests that an intensely optimistic outlook can help alter physical health." -- "While this is not evidence, it is still evidence..."
Elsevier is destroying science education with their greed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's too expensive to research a subject....that's the problem.
Concact your congress, they are dishonest.
My wife has ankylosing spondylitis. It's a bad disease process but almost never fatal. Not sure why such a horribly wrong statistic was included in this story.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFrom medscape.com:
Increased rates of mortality related to AS are rare. Death is generally the result of long-standing disease with either extra-articular manifestations, such as heart block, or from coexisting diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease.
My best compliment to Davide Rizzoli for having referred to a paper on an interesting argument, now corroborated clinically with the Quantum Biophysical Semeiotics. In fact, when we think positively, we realize to feel more relaxed and energetic. When we are upset, we are more likely to feel tired and lazy. But the scientific corroboration is that, in the first case, we bedside observe, e.g., type I, associated, microcirculatory activation of limbic region, supra-optic nucleous, amigdalas, PNEI nuclear centers, a.s.o., i.e., actiation of the brain sensor, I described last Christmas. This experimental evidence emphasises the structural-functional bases of our well-being under positive thinking.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI do appreciate the main point here, but it's hard to get past the illustration. Per bonetree, Ankylosing Spondylitis is miserable, but not usually fatal. My husband has been symptomatic with AS for 40 years, and his prognosis is for a normal lifespan. It used to be thought of as occuring in something like 1 in 1000, but I'm guessing that with better screening tools it's more commonly diagnosed now. Perhaps 1 in 500? That would make more sense than than the irresponsible statement that that 1 in 500 survive. Hopefully, no one with a recent diagnosis will come across this page in their search.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA problem with promoting the benefits of optimism is that it can be misleading... I'm thinking of a not-so-clever person smoking tobacco with the belief that their jovial attitude will prevent cancer & an early death, for example. Optimism can be healthy, but there is that boundary in which optimism is dangerous should be mentioned; optimistic realism is called for!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis is really interesting, but is a little general. I have recently blogged about a paper that investigates this on a cellular level. They test whether neuropeptides released from the brain onto the sensory receptors (in this case smell) can influence the strength of the sensory responses themselves. http://cellularscale.blogspot.com/2012/02/you-cant-trust-your-receptors-smell.html
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs this Scientific American or Psychology Today?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUh, "strongly affects our physical state", means what exactly?
Is "I love my anger" thinking positively?
Sure, if a belief is causing anger, than dispelling that belief might resolve the anger.
Are the bulk of our emotions caused, or even affected by, beliefs? I'm pretty sure the jury is still out on that.
How does the endocrine system or endorphins matter when we don't know the cause of emotions in the first place.
When I tell myself I'm happier than I've ever been, nothing much happens in my body, or anywhere else.
Apparently that's true of most everyone. If it weren't, everyone would be ecstatically happy.
Who, over six years old, hasn't tried affirmations.
What about the never ending chicken or egg debates of the James-Lange or Cannon-Bard theory of emotion.
Such lazy drivel especially from Scientific American.
What is a physical sensation? We have lots of sensory nerves. Most if not all of them send signals to the brain. The brain must interpret the signals. How the brain determines the interpretation of the signals is complex. I tell my family that pain only exists in the brain. That doesn't mean that we can always interpret sensory signals from a broken leg, for instance, as something to ignore. Yet, under the right circumstances we can. If we are conditioned to relate pain with a sound, a smell, an image, or even the touch of a feather, then we can experience severe pain when there is nothing actually causing the pain other than the sensation we were conditioned to relate to pain.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMy concern with this article is that it doesn't address the chicken and the egg problem. The question I have is which comes first: Do your thoughts cause you to feel happy or sad, or are you having happy or sad thoughts because of how you feel? There's some very interesting neuroscience research recently discussing the concept of free will, and how your thoughts happen before you're consciously aware of them. If that's the case, it might not be so easy for someone to direct their thoughts to be happy.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHow do you know this isn't a case of common causation? I.e., why not suppose that both the positive thoughts and the "good" hormones are effects of unconscious brain processes that, in turn, depend on recent inputs such as reminders of successes, expressions of affection from lovers, and so forth?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe topic of this piece is highly relevant, and I'm so glad to read about it in this erudite magazine. I was surprised, though, given the Scientific American's scientific bent, not to see more support for the claims. For peer-reviewed research study after peer-reviewed research study supports that a positive outlook can: cure the common cold, speed post-op recover, and--time and again--yield longevity, both for the sick and the ill. Check out some of the studies at "'Don't Worry, Be Happy'--And You Just Might Live a Longer and Better Life: A Positive Outlook's Effect on Health", http://wp.me/p22afJ-R1. It's truly astounding!
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