1
00:00:15,124 --> 00:00:18,331
Can the mind really heal the body?

2
00:00:18,346 --> 00:00:21,553
And if so, is there
any scientific evidence

3
00:00:21,553 --> 00:00:25,500
to convince
skeptical physicians like me?

4
00:00:25,516 --> 00:00:28,783
These are the questions that fueled
the last few years of my research

5
00:00:28,796 --> 00:00:32,267
and what I discovered is that
the scientific community,

6
00:00:32,267 --> 00:00:36,527
the medical establishment,
has being proving for over 50 years,

7
00:00:36,527 --> 00:00:38,754
that the mind can heal the body.

8
00:00:38,754 --> 00:00:41,474
We call it the "placebo effect".

9
00:00:41,474 --> 00:00:43,965
And we've been trying
to outsmart it for decades.

10
00:00:43,965 --> 00:00:45,640
(Laughter)

11
00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:49,716
The placebo effect is a thorn in the side
of the medical establishment.

12
00:00:49,716 --> 00:00:53,142
It's an inconvenient truth,
that gets in between,

13
00:00:53,142 --> 00:00:57,722
trying to bring new treatments, new
surgeries into the medical establishment.

14
00:00:57,722 --> 00:01:02,766
So it's a problem!
Supposedly.

15
00:01:02,766 --> 00:01:04,921
But I actually think,
this is really good news!

16
00:01:04,921 --> 00:01:07,246
The placebo effect is excellent news!

17
00:01:07,246 --> 00:01:09,398
Because it's concrete evidence

18
00:01:09,398 --> 00:01:13,566
that the body holds within it
innate self repair mechanisms

19
00:01:13,566 --> 00:01:19,752
that can make unthinkable
things happen to the body.

20
00:01:19,752 --> 00:01:21,275
So, if you find this surprising,

21
00:01:21,275 --> 00:01:23,724
if you have a hard time believing
that the body can heal itself,

22
00:01:23,724 --> 00:01:26,972
you need look no further than
The Spontaneous Remission Project,

23
00:01:26,972 --> 00:01:30,357
a database compiled
by the Institute of Noetic Sciences

24
00:01:30,357 --> 00:01:33,668
of over 3500 case studies
in the medical literature

25
00:01:33,668 --> 00:01:38,224
of patients who have gotten better
from seemingly "incurable" illnesses.

26
00:01:38,224 --> 00:01:40,291
You think there's such
a thing as an incurable illness?

27
00:01:40,291 --> 00:01:43,559
I swear, if you go look at this database,
it will blow your mind.

28
00:01:43,559 --> 00:01:44,827
Everything is in there.

29
00:01:44,827 --> 00:01:48,596
Stage 4 cancers that disappeared
without treatment.

30
00:01:48,596 --> 00:01:52,679
HIV positive patients,
that became HIV negative.

31
00:01:52,679 --> 00:01:56,506
Heart disease, kidney failure,
diabetes, high blood pressure,

32
00:01:56,506 --> 00:01:59,533
thyroid disease,
autoimmune diseases, gone.

33
00:01:59,533 --> 00:02:02,952
A great example of this
in the medical literature,

34
00:02:02,952 --> 00:02:08,419
is a case study from 1957 of Mr. Wright
who had advanced lymphosarcoma.

35
00:02:08,419 --> 00:02:12,307
So, things weren't going well for
Mr. Wright, time was really running out.

36
00:02:12,307 --> 00:02:18,255
He had tumors the size of oranges in his
armpits, neck, chest, abdomen.

37
00:02:18,255 --> 00:02:20,334
His liver and spleen were enlarged,

38
00:02:20,334 --> 00:02:22,981
and his lungs were filling up with
two quarts of milky fluid every day

39
00:02:22,981 --> 00:02:25,033
that have to be drained
in order for him to breathe.

40
00:02:25,033 --> 00:02:27,209
But Mr. Wright wasn't giving up hope.

41
00:02:27,209 --> 00:02:30,400
He had heard about
this wonder drug called Krebiozen,

42
00:02:30,400 --> 00:02:32,075
and he was begging his doctor,

43
00:02:32,075 --> 00:02:34,998
"Come on, just give me some of that
Krebiozen, it's all going to be good."

44
00:02:34,998 --> 00:02:38,523
Now, unfortunately the Krebiozen was
only available on a research protocol

45
00:02:38,523 --> 00:02:41,331
and the protocol required that the doctor
be able to make an assessment

46
00:02:41,331 --> 00:02:44,046
that says that this guy has
at least three months to live.

47
00:02:44,046 --> 00:02:46,437
And his doctor,
Dr. West just couldn't do that.

48
00:02:46,437 --> 00:02:48,987
But Mr. Wright was tenacious
and he didn't give up.

49
00:02:48,987 --> 00:02:51,013
He kept badgering his doctor,

50
00:02:51,013 --> 00:02:54,089
until finally his doctor was like,
"OK, fine I'll give you the Krebiozen."

51
00:02:54,089 --> 00:02:56,381
So he dosed him up on a Friday,

52
00:02:56,381 --> 00:02:59,566
not expecting that Mr. Wright
would make it through the weekend.

53
00:02:59,566 --> 00:03:02,814
But to his utter shock, when Dr. West
came in to do rounds on Monday,

54
00:03:02,814 --> 00:03:05,212
Mr. Wright was up,
walking around the wards,

55
00:03:05,212 --> 00:03:08,639
and his tumors had shrunk
to half of their original size.

56
00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:11,118
They had melted like
snowballs on a hot stove.

57
00:03:11,118 --> 00:03:14,074
And ten days after getting
the Krebiozen, they were gone.

58
00:03:14,074 --> 00:03:16,494
So Mr. Wright was up
rocking and rolling like crazy

59
00:03:16,494 --> 00:03:20,763
and Krebiozen is the miracle drug
he believed it to be, for two months,

60
00:03:20,763 --> 00:03:23,173
until the initial reports
came out about Krebiozen

61
00:03:23,173 --> 00:03:26,609
that said that it didn't really look like
Krebiozen was working so well.

62
00:03:26,609 --> 00:03:30,286
Mr. Wright fell into a deep depression
and his cancer came back.

63
00:03:30,286 --> 00:03:34,998
This time Dr. West decided to get sneaky,
and he told his patient, that,

64
00:03:34,998 --> 00:03:38,485
"You know that Krebiozen that you got,
that was a tainted version, not so good.

65
00:03:38,485 --> 00:03:42,487
But I got us some ultrapure
highly concentrated Krebiozen,

66
00:03:42,487 --> 00:03:45,249
This stuff's got it going on."

67
00:03:45,249 --> 00:03:49,621
He then injected Mr. Wright
with nothing but distilled water.

68
00:03:49,621 --> 00:03:53,963
And once again, the tumors disappeared,
the fluid in his lungs went away.

69
00:03:53,963 --> 00:03:57,227
Mr. Wright was up rocking and rolling
for another two months.

70
00:03:57,227 --> 00:04:01,683
And then the American Medical Association
blew it, by publishing on a nationwide study

71
00:04:01,683 --> 00:04:05,884
that prooved definitively that
Krebiozen was worthless.

72
00:04:05,884 --> 00:04:10,092
Two days later, Mr. Wright
after hearing this news died.

73
00:04:10,092 --> 00:04:12,384
Soon after that,
I came across another study

74
00:04:12,384 --> 00:04:15,851
in the medical literature
that was the stuff of fairy tales.

75
00:04:15,851 --> 00:04:18,386
Three baby girls were born,
delivered by a midwife,

76
00:04:18,386 --> 00:04:22,570
on Friday the 13th in the Okefenokee
Swamp, near the Georgia-Florida border.

77
00:04:22,570 --> 00:04:25,022
And the midwife pronounced
that these three babies,

78
00:04:25,022 --> 00:04:27,968
born on such a faithful day,
were all hexed.

79
00:04:27,968 --> 00:04:31,267
The first, she said, would die
before her 16th birthday.

80
00:04:31,267 --> 00:04:34,035
The second, before her 21st.

81
00:04:34,035 --> 00:04:36,737
The third, before her 23rd birthday.

82
00:04:36,737 --> 00:04:41,383
And as it turned out, the first girl died
the day before her 16th birthday,

83
00:04:41,383 --> 00:04:44,654
the second died the day
before her 21st birthday,

84
00:04:44,654 --> 00:04:47,667
and the third girl, who knew what
had happened to the other two,

85
00:04:47,667 --> 00:04:50,175
got wind of that, and the day
before her 23rd birthday,

86
00:04:50,175 --> 00:04:52,344
she showed at the hospital
hyperventilating,

87
00:04:52,344 --> 00:04:54,559
begging them,
to make sure she survived.

88
00:04:54,559 --> 00:04:57,007
She wound up dying that night.

89
00:04:57,007 --> 00:05:00,423
These two case studies are great
examples from the medical literature

90
00:05:00,423 --> 00:05:05,427
of the placebo effect, and
its opposite, the nocebo effect.

91
00:05:05,427 --> 00:05:08,572
When Mr. Wright got that distilled
water and his tumors melted away,

92
00:05:08,572 --> 00:05:11,329
that's a great example
of the placebo effect.

93
00:05:11,329 --> 00:05:13,901
When you get a seemingly
inert treatment

94
00:05:13,901 --> 00:05:16,845
and yet something is happening
physiologically in the body,

95
00:05:16,845 --> 00:05:18,617
such that the disease goes away.

96
00:05:18,617 --> 00:05:20,690
The nocebo effect is the opposite.

97
00:05:20,690 --> 00:05:23,933
So the three hexed girls are
an example of the nocebo effect.

98
00:05:23,933 --> 00:05:27,357
When the minds believed that something
bad is going to happen in the body

99
00:05:27,357 --> 00:05:29,519
then it comes to manifest.

100
00:05:29,519 --> 00:05:32,578
So the scientific literature
that medical journals

101
00:05:32,578 --> 00:05:34,131
like the New England
Journal of Medicine

102
00:05:34,131 --> 00:05:36,080
and the Journal of the American
Medical Association,

103
00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:40,983
these scientific journals are
full of evidence that the placebo effect,

104
00:05:40,983 --> 00:05:44,147
and the nocebo effect
are incredibly powerful.

105
00:05:44,147 --> 00:05:46,295
We've known this since the 1950s,

106
00:05:46,295 --> 00:05:49,111
and we've seen countless case studies

107
00:05:49,111 --> 00:05:52,036
that showed that in almost
everything you study,

108
00:05:52,036 --> 00:05:55,946
if you give people
a fake treatment, a sugar pill

109
00:05:55,946 --> 00:05:59,963
a saline injection, or most effectively,
a fake surgery,

110
00:05:59,963 --> 00:06:03,980
(Laughter)
-- yeah, really --

111
00:06:03,980 --> 00:06:07,799
18-80% of the time, people get better.

112
00:06:07,799 --> 00:06:10,646
And it's not just in the mind, that's
what I thought in the beginning,

113
00:06:10,646 --> 00:06:13,034
like "Oh! They're just feeling better,
they're thinking better."

114
00:06:13,034 --> 00:06:15,716
But is not. It's actually in their physiology.
This is measurable.

115
00:06:15,716 --> 00:06:18,444
You can actually see
what happens to the body.

116
00:06:18,444 --> 00:06:21,082
So for example patients getting placebos

117
00:06:21,082 --> 00:06:23,796
were found to have
ulcers that healed,

118
00:06:23,796 --> 00:06:28,234
colons that became less inflamed,
bronchia that dilated

119
00:06:28,234 --> 00:06:31,918
warts that disappeared, cells
looked different under the microscope.

120
00:06:31,918 --> 00:06:34,064
It's provable, it's happening in the body,

121
00:06:34,064 --> 00:06:36,686
even though it's initiated by the mind.

122
00:06:36,686 --> 00:06:40,657
So, when you look at these,
some of the studies are just amazing.

123
00:06:40,657 --> 00:06:42,199
I love the Rogain studies.

124
00:06:42,199 --> 00:06:44,434
You get a bunch of bald men,
you give them placebos.

125
00:06:44,434 --> 00:06:48,161
They grow hair!
(Laughter)

126
00:06:48,161 --> 00:06:52,320
The opposite is also true,
so if you give people a placebo

127
00:06:52,320 --> 00:06:54,372
and you tell them it's chemotherapy,

128
00:06:54,372 --> 00:06:56,782
they vomit, and they lose their hair.

129
00:06:56,782 --> 00:06:58,916
So this is really happening in the body.

130
00:06:58,916 --> 00:07:00,225
My question was,

131
00:07:00,225 --> 00:07:04,104
Is it just the mind's positive belief
that's making this happen?

132
00:07:04,104 --> 00:07:07,069
Not according to Harvard
researcher Ted Kaptchuk.

133
00:07:07,069 --> 00:07:10,926
According to him, he thinks
that the most essential part

134
00:07:10,926 --> 00:07:15,086
is actually the nurturing care
of a health care provider,

135
00:07:15,086 --> 00:07:18,230
more so even than
the mind's positive belief

136
00:07:18,230 --> 00:07:23,474
that some of the studies actually say
that the doctor is the placebo or can be.

137
00:07:23,474 --> 00:07:25,457
So Ted Kaptchuk wanted to study this,

138
00:07:25,457 --> 00:07:28,294
and he did a great study
looking at patients

139
00:07:28,294 --> 00:07:30,531
that were getting
placebos for an illness,

140
00:07:30,531 --> 00:07:32,287
for treatment of an illness
and he told them,

141
00:07:32,287 --> 00:07:34,920
"You're getting a placebo,
there's nothing in here,

142
00:07:34,920 --> 00:07:40,375
inert ingredients, nothing active."
They still got better.

143
00:07:40,375 --> 00:07:44,677
Most likely, Kaptchuk postulated,
because they felt tended, nurtured,

144
00:07:44,677 --> 00:07:48,841
they felt like they were doing something,
they felt like somebody cared.

145
00:07:48,841 --> 00:07:53,489
So to say that you can heal yourself
is sort of a misnomer.

146
00:07:53,489 --> 00:07:55,158
You know, the body can heal itself.

147
00:07:55,158 --> 00:07:57,935
The body has this innate
natural self repair mechanisms,

148
00:07:57,935 --> 00:08:02,168
but the scientific data
proves that you need

149
00:08:02,168 --> 00:08:06,616
the tending nurturing care of a healthcare
provider, of some sort of a healer,

150
00:08:06,616 --> 00:08:08,882
to facilitate that process.

151
00:08:08,882 --> 00:08:10,932
It's not an easy process
to go through alone,

152
00:08:10,932 --> 00:08:12,178
so it makes a big difference

153
00:08:12,178 --> 00:08:14,903
if somebody else is holding
that positive belief with you.

154
00:08:14,903 --> 00:08:18,810
But the problem is while
the doctor can be the placebo,

155
00:08:18,810 --> 00:08:21,455
the doctor can also be the nocebo.

156
00:08:21,455 --> 00:08:24,614
So, what patients need from us,
as healthcare providers,

157
00:08:24,614 --> 00:08:30,881
they need us to be forces of healing,
not forces of fear or pessimism.

158
00:08:30,881 --> 00:08:34,518
So every time your doctor tells you,
"You have an incurable illness,

159
00:08:34,518 --> 00:08:39,683
you're going to have to take that
medication for the rest of your life,"

160
00:08:39,683 --> 00:08:41,841
Or God forbid,
you get cancer and they say,

161
00:08:41,841 --> 00:08:45,326
"You've got a 5% five-year survival rate."

162
00:08:45,326 --> 00:08:49,211
It's really no different that when
that midwife told those three baby girls

163
00:08:49,211 --> 00:08:50,989
that they were hexed.

164
00:08:50,989 --> 00:08:53,768
It's a form of medical hexing
that's so prevalent.

165
00:08:53,768 --> 00:08:55,916
As doctors, we think
we're being realistic, you know?

166
00:08:55,916 --> 00:08:58,862
We're giving people the kind of information
we think they need to know,

167
00:08:58,862 --> 00:09:00,948
but we actually can be harming them.

168
00:09:00,948 --> 00:09:03,896
Instead we need be more
like Dr. West. You know?

169
00:09:03,896 --> 00:09:06,075
Picking that distilled water,
"Really Mr.Wright,

170
00:09:06,075 --> 00:09:08,972
I promise, this is going to
do it for you."

171
00:09:08,972 --> 00:09:12,731
But do we have to count on
our doctors to dupe us?

172
00:09:12,731 --> 00:09:19,231
Do we have to get fake surgeries and
fake drugs, and wind up in clinical trials.

173
00:09:19,231 --> 00:09:22,378
This is what led
the next phase of my research.

174
00:09:22,378 --> 00:09:24,271
So in my last TEDx talk,
l talked about

175
00:09:24,271 --> 00:09:26,349
a new wellness model
that I developed,

176
00:09:26,349 --> 00:09:28,500
called the whole health cairn,

177
00:09:28,500 --> 00:09:31,574
and this came about
as part of my research,

178
00:09:31,574 --> 00:09:35,664
trying to find how else can
we harness this mind's power

179
00:09:35,664 --> 00:09:39,189
that's clearly evidenced by the
placebo effect and the nocebo effect,

180
00:09:39,189 --> 00:09:41,778
can we do something without
being in a clinical trial?

181
00:09:41,778 --> 00:09:45,488
And my hypothesis was that
in order to heal ourselves,

182
00:09:45,488 --> 00:09:47,492
in order to be optimally healthy,

183
00:09:47,492 --> 00:09:52,704
we need more than just a good diet,
regular exercise program,

184
00:09:52,704 --> 00:09:55,824
getting enough sleep, taking your
vitamins, following your doctors orders.

185
00:09:55,824 --> 00:09:58,236
Those things all are great,
and critical and important.

186
00:09:58,236 --> 00:10:01,867
But I also came to believe that
we need healthy relationships,

187
00:10:01,867 --> 00:10:05,500
a healthy professional life,
a healthy creative life,

188
00:10:05,500 --> 00:10:08,177
a healthy spiritual life,
a healthy sex life,

189
00:10:08,177 --> 00:10:10,685
a healthy financial life,
a healthy environment.

190
00:10:10,685 --> 00:10:14,194
In essence, we need a healthy mind.

191
00:10:14,194 --> 00:10:17,981
So I wanted to try to prove this, and
I went into the medical literature

192
00:10:17,981 --> 00:10:20,799
and the copious data that I found,

193
00:10:20,799 --> 00:10:25,187
proving that all of those things
are essential, really blew my mind.

194
00:10:25,187 --> 00:10:27,562
I compiled them all into my upcoming book,

195
00:10:27,562 --> 00:10:31,600
"Mind Over Medicine: Scientific
proof you can heal yourself".

196
00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:35,638
But I want to give you a few highlights
about what this is all about.

197
00:10:35,638 --> 00:10:38,370
So you can see from
the whole health cairn,

198
00:10:38,370 --> 00:10:40,945
that all this facets are built upon
a foundation stone

199
00:10:40,945 --> 00:10:43,136
that I call your inner pilot light.

200
00:10:43,136 --> 00:10:45,913
And for me that's the essential
authentic part of you,

201
00:10:45,913 --> 00:10:47,691
that knows what's true for you.

202
00:10:47,691 --> 00:10:51,808
That's willing to tell you the truth about
maybe what's out of alignment in your life,

203
00:10:51,808 --> 00:10:54,759
what stones in your whole health cairn
might be out of balance.

204
00:10:54,759 --> 00:10:56,969
And as you see I've put the body,
physical health,

205
00:10:56,969 --> 00:10:59,179
on the top of the whole health cairn

206
00:10:59,179 --> 00:11:01,389
because it's the most fragile,
the most precarious,

207
00:11:01,389 --> 00:11:03,560
and the most easy to kind
of fall out of balance

208
00:11:03,560 --> 00:11:06,594
if other things in your life
aren't going so well.

209
00:11:06,594 --> 00:11:10,544
So what I found in the medical data
is that relationships matter.

210
00:11:10,544 --> 00:11:14,600
People that have a strong social network
have half the rate of heart disease

211
00:11:14,600 --> 00:11:17,008
compared to those who are lonely.

212
00:11:17,008 --> 00:11:22,972
Married people are twice as likely
to live long lives than unmarried people.

213
00:11:22,972 --> 00:11:25,004
In fact, curing your loneliness maybe

214
00:11:25,004 --> 00:11:28,514
the most important measure of prevention
you can enact upon your body.

215
00:11:28,514 --> 00:11:32,504
More so than quitting smoking
or starting to exercise.

216
00:11:32,504 --> 00:11:34,678
Your spiritual life matters.

217
00:11:34,678 --> 00:11:38,917
Those who attend religious services
live up to fourteen years longer.

218
00:11:38,917 --> 00:11:40,601
Your professional life matters.

219
00:11:40,601 --> 00:11:44,470
You really can work yourself to death.
In Japan they call it karoshi.

220
00:11:44,470 --> 00:11:50,878
Death by overwork, and the survivors
of those who die of karoshi,

221
00:11:50,878 --> 00:11:54,213
can actually apply for workmen's
complaint benefits in Japan.

222
00:11:54,213 --> 00:11:57,763
But it's not just Japan, it's actually
happening even more in the United States,

223
00:11:57,763 --> 00:11:59,897
we just don't get benefits here.

224
00:11:59,897 --> 00:12:02,893
So one study found that people
that fail to take their vacation,

225
00:12:02,893 --> 00:12:06,014
are actually a third more likely
to get heart disease.

226
00:12:06,014 --> 00:12:08,289
Τhe attitude really matters.

227
00:12:08,289 --> 00:12:12,180
Ηappy people live 7 to 10 years
longer than unhappy people,

228
00:12:12,180 --> 00:12:18,055
and optimists are 77% less likely
to get heart disease than pessimists.

229
00:12:18,055 --> 00:12:19,864
So how does this happen?

230
00:12:19,864 --> 00:12:23,584
What is happening in the brain
that is making the body change?

231
00:12:23,584 --> 00:12:25,608
This is what's fascinating to me.

232
00:12:25,608 --> 00:12:29,048
I found that the brain communicates
with all the cells in the body

233
00:12:29,048 --> 00:12:31,523
via hormones and neurotransmitters.

234
00:12:31,523 --> 00:12:34,153
So, for example, if you have
a negative thought, belief

235
00:12:34,153 --> 00:12:37,930
or feeling in the brain,
your brain triggers this as a threat.

236
00:12:37,930 --> 00:12:38,796
Something's wrong.

237
00:12:38,796 --> 00:12:40,938
If you feel lonely or pessimistic,
things are bad at work,

238
00:12:40,938 --> 00:12:45,099
you are in a toxic relationship,
the amygdala says, "Τhreat! Τhreat!"

239
00:12:45,099 --> 00:12:49,213
and it turns on the hypothalamus,
that talks to the pituitary gland,

240
00:12:49,213 --> 00:12:53,142
that communicates with the adrenal gland
and the adrenal gland start spitting out

241
00:12:53,142 --> 00:12:57,081
stress hormones like cortisol,
norepinephrine, epinephrine.

242
00:12:57,081 --> 00:13:00,788
Ιt turns on what Walter Cannon
at Harvard calls the stress response,

243
00:13:00,788 --> 00:13:04,512
that triggers the sympathetic
nervous system,

244
00:13:04,512 --> 00:13:07,914
and puts you into that
fight or flight mode, which is adaptive,

245
00:13:07,914 --> 00:13:11,318
it's protective if you are running away
from a mountain lion,

246
00:13:11,318 --> 00:13:14,961
but in every day life, you're supposed
to have that quick stress response

247
00:13:14,961 --> 00:13:17,698
if there is a threat and then
it's supposed to switch right off.

248
00:13:17,698 --> 00:13:21,066
This isn't what happens
in our regular lives these days.

249
00:13:21,066 --> 00:13:24,387
But fortunately there is a counter balance
in relaxation response

250
00:13:24,387 --> 00:13:26,702
that Herbert Benson at Harvard described.

251
00:13:26,702 --> 00:13:30,786
And when this comes about,
the stress response turns off,

252
00:13:30,786 --> 00:13:32,983
the parasympathetic nervous system
turns on,

253
00:13:32,983 --> 00:13:38,535
and healing hormones like oxytocin,
dopamine, nitric oxide, endorphins

254
00:13:38,535 --> 00:13:41,757
fill the body and bathe
every cell in the body.

255
00:13:41,757 --> 00:13:43,625
What I found the most amazing about this

256
00:13:43,625 --> 00:13:47,032
is that those natural self repair
mechanisms that we all have

257
00:13:47,032 --> 00:13:52,054
they only flip on when
the nervous system is relaxed.

258
00:13:52,054 --> 00:13:54,678
So when you're having
stress responses,

259
00:13:54,678 --> 00:13:58,318
all those natural self repair
mechanisms get flipped off.

260
00:13:58,318 --> 00:14:03,127
The body is too busy trying to fight
or flee, in order to heal itself.

261
00:14:03,127 --> 00:14:07,875
So, when you think about this,
you have to start to wonder like,

262
00:14:07,875 --> 00:14:12,317
How can I possibly start to change
the balance in my own body?

263
00:14:12,317 --> 00:14:14,835
So one study showed
that on average we have

264
00:14:14,835 --> 00:14:17,788
more than 50 stress responses per day.

265
00:14:17,788 --> 00:14:21,481
And if you're lonely, or depressed
or pessimistic or unhappy at work

266
00:14:21,481 --> 00:14:25,636
or in a miserable relationship that number
is going to be more than twice as many.

267
00:14:25,636 --> 00:14:28,883
Now this relaxation response
is what researchers think

268
00:14:28,883 --> 00:14:30,822
explains the placebo effect.

269
00:14:30,822 --> 00:14:34,569
So when you're going to get supposedly
maybe a new wonder drug,

270
00:14:34,569 --> 00:14:37,160
-- you don't know whether you're getting
the placebo or not --

271
00:14:37,160 --> 00:14:38,793
it triggers that relaxation response,

272
00:14:38,793 --> 00:14:41,473
that combination of the mind's
positive belief

273
00:14:41,473 --> 00:14:44,460
and the nurturing care
of a healthcare provider

274
00:14:44,046 --> 00:14:45,526
relaxes the nervous system.

275
00:14:45,526 --> 00:14:49,594
And then all those natural self repair
mechanisms can come into play.

276
00:14:49,594 --> 00:14:52,124
Fortunately though you don't have
to be in a clinical trial

277
00:14:52,124 --> 00:14:54,280
to turn on your relaxation responses.

278
00:14:54,280 --> 00:14:56,882
There are lots of simple
pleasurable activities

279
00:14:56,882 --> 00:14:58,772
that turn on the relaxation responses

280
00:14:58,772 --> 00:15:01,371
and these have been proven
in the medical literature.

281
00:15:01,371 --> 00:15:05,786
So you can meditate,
you can express yourself creatively,

282
00:15:05,786 --> 00:15:09,293
you can get a massage,
do yoga or tai chi,

283
00:15:09,293 --> 00:15:12,743
you can go out with your friends,
you can do work that you love,

284
00:15:12,743 --> 00:15:18,840
you can have sex, you can laugh,
exercise, you can play with animals.

285
00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:22,154
So I ask you to consider
the Whole Health Cairn in your own life.

286
00:15:22,154 --> 00:15:25,813
Which stones in your Whole Health Cairn
might be out of balance?

287
00:15:25,813 --> 00:15:28,495
Each of these stones can be a factor

288
00:15:28,495 --> 00:15:32,224
for creating stress responses
or relaxation responses.

289
00:15:32,224 --> 00:15:36,553
How might you turn on more
relaxation responses in your body?

290
00:15:36,553 --> 00:15:38,144
And most importantly,

291
00:15:38,144 --> 00:15:40,782
what does your body
need in order to heal?

292
00:15:40,782 --> 00:15:43,503
What prescription do you need
to write for yourself?

293
00:15:43,503 --> 00:15:45,092
And are you going to be brave enough

294
00:15:45,092 --> 00:15:50,021
to take action on the truth of what
your inner pilot light already knows?

295
00:15:50,021 --> 00:15:53,532
I believe our healthcare system
is badly broken,

296
00:15:53,532 --> 00:15:58,104
and it's largely because we've lost respect
for the body's ability to heal itself.

297
00:15:58,104 --> 00:16:00,554
The medical establishment
has gotten arrogant.

298
00:16:00,554 --> 00:16:03,416
We've come to think that
with all of our modern technology,

299
00:16:03,416 --> 00:16:05,585
and all that we've learnt
in the past century,

300
00:16:05,585 --> 00:16:10,167
that we've mastered nature,
and we find it repelling

301
00:16:10,167 --> 00:16:14,256
to think that maybe nature could
be better than we are sometimes.

302
00:16:14,256 --> 00:16:19,177
And yet, spontaneous remissions
from incurable diseases are proof

303
00:16:19,177 --> 00:16:22,200
that sometimes nature
is just better than we are.

304
00:16:22,020 --> 00:16:23,863
It's a narcisitic wound for physicians.

305
00:16:23,863 --> 00:16:25,169
We don't know what to do with that.

306
00:16:25,169 --> 00:16:27,937
It makes us feel helpless
and hopeless and useless.

307
00:16:27,937 --> 00:16:30,968
But fortunately, we're needed.

308
00:16:30,968 --> 00:16:33,781
The physician and all the other
healthcare providers

309
00:16:33,781 --> 00:16:36,297
are absolutely essential to this process.

310
00:16:36,297 --> 00:16:38,030
We need to embrace this.

311
00:16:38,030 --> 00:16:41,010
And patients need to change
their outlooks on this as well.

312
00:16:41,010 --> 00:16:42,475
It is not just doctors.

313
00:16:42,475 --> 00:16:45,539
We need patients to stop thinking that
your body is not your business,

314
00:16:45,539 --> 00:16:48,957
taking your power and handing it
over to other healthcare providers.

315
00:16:48,957 --> 00:16:53,749
Your body is your business, and
your mind has tremendous power

316
00:16:53,749 --> 00:16:59,354
to communicate with your body,
such that your body can heal itself.

317
00:16:59,354 --> 00:17:03,405
So I once had a dream, and
in my dream I was standing there,

318
00:17:03,405 --> 00:17:06,532
looking at these mountain sides,
full of millions of people

319
00:17:06,532 --> 00:17:08,185
that were standing
shoulder to shoulder,

320
00:17:08,185 --> 00:17:11,868
and they were all facing due north,
dressed in all this tribal garbs,

321
00:17:11,868 --> 00:17:14,915
beautiful colors covering
the mountain sides like a quilt.

322
00:17:14,915 --> 00:17:18,238
And there was a bright
streaming light on their face

323
00:17:18,238 --> 00:17:21,517
and everyone was facing this light,

324
00:17:21,517 --> 00:17:23,734
and that's what I think of,
when I think of healthcare.

325
00:17:23,734 --> 00:17:26,960
I think of all of us, standing up,
and facing the light.

326
00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:29,569
So please stand with me for a moment.

327
00:17:29,569 --> 00:17:31,692
It's going to take all of us.

328
00:17:31,692 --> 00:17:36,368
Just because things have gotten bad
doesn't mean they can't get better.

329
00:17:36,368 --> 00:17:40,369
I believe that just like there are
no incurable illnesses

330
00:17:40,369 --> 00:17:42,113
there are no incurable systems.

331
00:17:42,113 --> 00:17:46,226
But it's going to take all of us, needing
to open our heart and our minds,

332
00:17:46,226 --> 00:17:48,567
and bring care back to healthcare.

333
00:17:48,567 --> 00:17:50,891
So please hold hands
with your fellow neighbor

334
00:17:50,891 --> 00:17:53,308
and let's just set
the intention right here,

335
00:17:53,308 --> 00:17:56,706
that things are going to be
different from now on,

336
00:17:56,706 --> 00:18:01,610
that we can start this grass roots effort
that it all starts with you.

337
00:18:01,610 --> 00:18:05,086
Be the love that you want to
see in healthcare,

338
00:18:05,086 --> 00:18:07,532
and I believe miracles can happen.

339
00:18:07,532 --> 00:18:13,560
As we do this you're releasing oxytocin,
dopamine, you start to heal yourself

340
00:18:13,056 --> 00:18:15,563
and as we do so we can heal healthcare.

341
00:18:15,563 --> 00:18:17,398
Thank you.

342
00:18:17,398 --> 00:18:22,295
(Applause)