Wednesday, December 28, 2011

The Power of Suggestion

Last December I wrote a Facebook post about the power of suggestion and illness. I had noticed that the last time I got sick, I hadn't been around sick people, but I had read a lot of status updates about people being sick. It get's in your head, you know?
So I stopped posting about not feeling well (to benefit other susceptible people, and so that I wouldn't focus on it), and I started doing my best to skip over other people's status updates about being sick.

Now let me just say that historically I've been someone who gets whatever bug is going around. Head colds would settle not so nicely into my chest and stick around for weeks. I used to think it was because I worked with the public, but then I stopped working with the public and would still get sick. WTF? Not cool. Was it my workaholic tendencies? Maybe, but now that I was working on my own I could - and did - get more rest. Curious.

That's when I started noticing the Facebook posts. People would post left and right about coughing up a lung and how miserable they were. I would think oh I'd better be careful, there's really something going around right now. But you know what? There is always something going around.

I'm happy to report that I went over a year without getting sick. No, I didn't feel 100% all of the time, and I think I did get a cold sometime in the last year. But it didn't develop into a full-blown event. In addition to my NOT reading FB posts about illness, I started taking osha root and mullein leaf in tincture form whenever I was feeling run down. Was it the natural remedies keeping me healthy, or avoiding the negative posts? Probably some combination of the two. But whatever the case, I'll take it!

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm writing this because I did succumb to dreaded "crud" finally (after an unprecedented year plus of health!). Ah well, you can't win them all. Was I paying attention to status updates? Well... I did notice a few. They can be hard to ignore. Hopefully my natural remedies will knock this stuff out of my system quickly.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the power of suggestion and health. I mean... there is the placebo effect, right? If the suggestion (or pill) can make you well, than surely it can make you sick, right?

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Thoughts?