Is there scientific proof we can heal ourselves? | Lissa Rankin, MD | TEDxAmericanRiviera (2)

More so than quitting smoking or starting to exercise.

Your spiritual life matters.

Those who attend religious services live up to fourteen years longer.

Your professional life matters.

You really can work yourself to death. In Japan they call it karoshi.

Death by overwork, and the survivors of those who die of karoshi,

can actually apply for workman's comp-like benefits in Japan.

But it's not just Japan, it's actually happening even more in the United States,

we just don't get benefits here.

So one study found that people that fail to take their vacation,

are actually a third more likely to get heart disease.

Your attitude really matters.

Ηappy people live 7 to 10 years longer than unhappy people,

and optimists are 77% less likely to get heart disease than pessimists.

So how does this happen?

What is happening in the brain that is making the body change?

This is what was fascinating to me.

I found that the brain communicates with all the cells in the body

via hormones and neurotransmitters.

So, for example, if you have a negative thought, belief

or feeling in the brain, your brain triggers this as a threat.

Something's wrong.

If you feel lonely or pessimistic, things are bad at work,

you are in a toxic relationship, the amygdala says, "Τhreat! Τhreat!"

and it turns on the hypothalamus, that talks to the pituitary gland,

that communicates with the adrenal gland and the adrenal gland start spitting out

stress hormones like cortisol, norepinephrine, epinephrine.

Ιt turns on what Walter Cannon at Harvard called the stress response,

that triggers the sympathetic nervous system,

and puts you into that fight or flight mode, which is adaptive,

it's protective if you are running away from a mountain lion,

but in every day life, you're supposed to have that quick stress response

if there is a threat and then it's supposed to switch right off.

This isn't what happens in our regular lives these days.

But fortunately there is a counter balancing relaxation response

that Herbert Benson at Harvard described.

And when this comes about, the stress response turns off,

the parasympathetic nervous system turns on,

and healing hormones like oxytocin, dopamine, nitric oxide, endorphins

fill the body and bathe every cell in the body.

What I found the most amazing about this

is that those natural self-repair mechanisms that we all have,

they only flip on when the nervous system is relaxed.

So when you're having stress responses,

all those natural self-repair mechanisms get flipped off.

The body is too busy trying to fight or flee, in order to heal itself.

So, when you think about this, you have to start to wonder like,

How can I possibly start to change the balance in my own body?

So one study showed that on average we have

more than 50 stress responses per day.

And if you're lonely, or depressed or pessimistic or unhappy at work

or in a miserable relationship that number is going to be more than twice as many.

Now this relaxation response is what researchers think

explains the placebo effect.

So when you're going to get supposedly maybe a new wonder drug -

you don't know whether you're getting the placebo or not -

it triggers that relaxation response,

that combination of the mind's positive belief

and the nurturing care of a healthcare provider

relaxes the nervous system.

And then all those natural self repair mechanisms can come into play.

Fortunately though you don't have to be in a clinical trial

to turn on your relaxation responses.

There are lots of simple pleasurable activities

that turn on the relaxation responses

and these have been proven in the medical literature.

So you can meditate, you can express yourself creatively,

you can get a massage, do yoga or tai chi,

you can go out with your friends, you can do work that you love,

you can have sex, you can laugh, exercise, you can play with animals.

So I ask you to consider the Whole Health Cairn in your own life.

Which stones in your Whole Health Cairn might be out of balance?

Each of these stones can be a factor

for creating stress responses or relaxation responses.

How might you turn on more relaxation responses in your body?

And most importantly,

what does your body need in order to heal?

What prescription do you need to write for yourself?

And are you going to be brave enough

to take action on the truth of what your inner pilot light already knows?

I believe our healthcare system is badly broken,

and it's largely because we've lost respect

for the body's ability to heal itself.

The medical establishment has gotten arrogant.

We've come to think that with all of our modern technology,

and all that we've learned in the past century,

that we've mastered nature, and we find it repelling

to think that maybe nature could be better than we are sometimes.

And yet, spontaneous remissions from incurable diseases are proof

that sometimes nature is just better than we are.

It's a narcisitic wound for physicians.

We don't know what to do with that.

It makes us feel helpless and hopeless and useless.

But fortunately, we're needed.

The physician and all the other healthcare providers

are absolutely essential to this process.

We need to embrace this.

And patients need to change their outlooks on this as well.

It is not just doctors.

We need patients to stop thinking that your body is not your business,

taking your power and handing it over to other healthcare providers.

Your body is your business, and your mind has tremendous power

to communicate with your body, such that your body can heal itself.

So I once had a dream, and in my dream I was standing there,

looking at these mountainsides, full of millions of people

that were standing shoulder to shoulder,

and they were all facing due north, dressed in all these tribal garbs,

beautiful colors covering the mountainsides like a quilt.

And there was a bright streaming light on their face

and everyone was facing this light,

and that's what I think of, when I think of healthcare.

I think of all of us, standing up, and facing the light.

So please stand with me for a moment.

It's going to take all of us.

Just because things have gotten bad doesn't mean they can't get better.

I believe that just like there are no incurable illnesses

there are no incurable systems.

But it's going to take all of us, needing to open our heart and our minds,

and bring care back to healthcare.

So please hold hands with your fellow neighbor

and let's just set the intention right here,

that things are going to be different from now on,

that we can start this grassroots effort that it all starts with you.

Be the love that you want to see in healthcare,

and I believe miracles can happen.

As we do this you're releasing oxytocin, dopamine, you start to heal yourself

and as we do so we can heal healthcare.

Thank you.

(Applause)