Wanted - Doctor to Listen and Encourage Me.

"The Doctor and the Patient: Relationship, Partnership or Marriage? by Bernard S. Siegel, MD - Where can you find a doctor that will listen and encourage you?" -  http://ahha.org/articles.asp?Id=10

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Tom sez - This article is the essence of mind-body healing or so I think.  Maybe you can find a doctor that will indeed listen and encourage you.  Good for you, if you find one.

In the meantime, try cultivating the "Doctor Within" you to listen and encourage you.  When you find the Doctor Within, maybe you won't need face-to-face doctors so more.

Consider making your own Healing Machine.  Ask your face-to-face doctor to help you do this.  If they do, you've found a good one!

What do you think?

Forgiveness and Good Health

"How forgiveness can positively affect your health - “Anger, bitterness and resentment are natural human emotions. But holding a grudge against your sister for not having arthritis, or hanging onto jealousy over a coworker for snagging your well-deserved promotion may negatively affect your health,” states an article in Arthritis Today, a consumer health magazine published by the Arthritis Foundation......Integrative medicine is just now exploring what our grandmothers have been telling us for centuries – how you feel emotionally, affects the way you feel physically. There is an entire field of study devoted to this aspect of healthcare called “psychoneuroimmunology,” which looks at how our neurological and immune functions are intrinsically linked. So how does forgiveness fit into our overall health? Does forgiveness improve our well-being?" - - http://blogs.timescolonist.com/2012/04/17/the-forgiveness-project/

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Tom sez - In my research in preparing to make The Virtual Healing Machine, I learned that forgiveness is a big part of learning.  Therefore, I included words to encourage forgiveness in the self-hypnosis scripts.  If interested, see the scripts on the VHM site.  

It's amazing how much emotions affect us physically.  We're just beginning to know about this.  There's so much that could be done, but is not for various reasons.  I'm hoping my work will stimulate individuals to take charge of their own health.....and encourage innovators to springboard off my work.

Happy Healing!

Need Some Money for Placebo Effect Research?

Well, I don't have any extra money.  I work on a shoestring - a magical shoestring that keeps me healthy - it has healing powers of it's own.  No, just kidding folks!  It's really my tin-foil hat that has medicinal powers. :-)


Seriously - people, companies, and governments will give you money to study the Placebo Effect.  Some are listed below.  


Please beware though, that some medical industries don't want the placebo effect to work and want to find out ways to diminish it.  Follow your heart in your work - and "do no harm".  The links below look pretty innocuous to me and seem to really want to help patients, even if it might affect their someone's margins.

• NIH Research Grant -  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-DA-12-004.html - Also, if interested, learn from the researcher's results.  I think all the research results are, or will be, available to the public.
• Similar to above - NIH -  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-AT-02-002.html
• Likewise -  http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?mode=VIEW&oppId=72273
• Also -  http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-DA-12-003.html
• Michael J. Fox - Parkinson's -  http://www.michaeljfox.org/research_MJFFfundingPortfolio_searchableAwardedGrants_3.cfm?ID=609 
• NCCAM -  http://nccam.nih.gov/news/2012/011012.htm
• U.S. Federal Assistance -  https://www.cfda.gov/?s=program&mode=form&tab=step1&id=ec9616ec04a46757cc71242e5db70b2b

If interested in finding more, you can Google these search strings - 

(placebo OR nocebo)-(effect OR response) "research grant"

(placebo OR nocebo)-(effect OR response) "research grant" site:.gov

Best wishes in finding your pot o' gold, if you need it.

"Putting the placebo effect to work"

"Rather than dismiss it, we should try to understand the placebo effect and harness it when we can.

For a long time, the placebo effect was held in low regard. If people responded to a suspect treatment, we said it was "just the placebo effect." The suggestion was that they had been fooled in some way, and their response was inauthentic.

But attitudes are shifting, even in conventional medical circles. Randomized trials, some of them led by researchers at the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter, have deepened the understanding of the placebo effect and its various components. Researchers have also used brain scans and other technologies to show that there may be a physiological explanation for the placebo effect in many cases. There is some danger that uncritical acceptance of the placebo effect could be used to justify useless treatments. But more important is the growing recognition that what we call the placebo effect may involve changes in brain chemistry — and that the placebo effect may be an integral part of good medical care and an ally that should be embraced by doctors and patients alike......" - http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Health_Letter/2012/April/putting-the-placebo-effect-to-work (full article here)

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Tom sez - I think the placebo effect is an untapped resource, much like hypnosis.  That's why I spend so much time writing and inventing around these phenomena.  


For the medical practitioner, healer, biomedical engineer who is concerned about "making it work", do not be afraid.  That's the beauty of the placebo effect, it doesn't have to work according to science and medicine.  The "working" part is that the patient thinks it works.


So make your doctor's coats into long flowing robes to increase your effect on the patient, but use your placebo powers wisely.  Please avoid the nocebo effect.  Your doctor's coat and nurse's uniform has great power.  Example - white coat syndrome.  If interested in engaging mind-body healing, study the old time medicine shows and pick up some tips.


Biomedical engineers - please consider embellishing medical devices with spooky powers, magical effects, etc.  They don't have to work but it will increase the placebo effect of the device.  If you're dry for ideas go to the Museum of Quackery - http://www.museumofquackery.com/ 


I predict there will be an upsurge of Mind-Body Healing Machines for the public to use.  I foresee caring doctors using such devices.

Stay tuned to my progress, if interested.  Comment, if you want.

How Does Hypnosis Work? What is Hypnotherapy? What about Self-Hypnosis?

If you're a doctor, researcher, or technical person - here is a site that shows how hypnosis works in clinical situations...e.g. depression, irritable bowel syndrome, etc. 

If you're a patient and find an article you like, take it to your doctor.  See what they think.  If you don't like the answer you get, explore the topic on your own, and find another doctor or professional hypnotherapist.  You are in charge of your own health and happiness.  Find a way that works for you.  

Your local library can also help you get free copies.  Lots of these are also probably on the Internet.

You might find this an excellent networking tool, also.  Find the articles you like and contact the authors.  Find places that do your kind of research.

Please see link below...

Hypnosis research papers - http://www.hypnosisandsuggestion.org/hypnosis-research-papers.html

Contact with the organization associated with the link below might help you also.

Good Luck and Best Wishes!

The Placebo Effect: How the Subconscious Fits in

"The Placebo Effect: How the Subconscious Fits in

J. L. Mommaerts, Dirk Devroey

Source Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
Volume 55, Number 1, Winter 2012
pp. 43-58 | 10.1353/pbm.2012.0005

Abstract

Abstract:

The placebo effect is very well known, being replicated in many scientific studies. At the same time, its exact mechanisms still remain unknown. Quite a few hypothetical explanations for the placebo effect have been suggested, including faith, belief, hope, classical conditioning, conscious/subconscious expectation, endorphins, and the meaning response. This article argues that all these explanations may boil down to autosuggestion, in the sense of "communication with the subconscious." An important implication of this is that the placebo effect can in principle be used effectively without the placebo itself, through a direct use of autosuggestion. The benefits of such a strategy are clear: fewer side effects from medications, huge cost savings, no deception of patients, relief of burden on the physician's time, and healing in domains where medication or other therapies are problematic." - https://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/perspectives_in_biology_and_medicine/v055/55.1.mommaerts.pdf

(I bolded/underlined the words that caught my eye above...)

Tom sez....Why aren't there many articles on combining Hypnosis and The Placebo Effect....and make an easy to use self help tool for the world?  Am I the only one working on such a thing with The Virtual Healing Machine?  Please build on my work and make something better.

Happy Day!

Glove Anesthesia in Hypnosis - Medical Hypnotherapy Pain management

Glove Anesthesia is one of the little used tools for pain management.  Hypnosis is low-cost or free and can be effective in many situations.  This is a good video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfmpSmyio-Y

For more information, please see below and/or a professional hypnotherapist in your locality....

• " glove anesthesia, n a hypnotic technique used to relieve pain. The patient's hand is made to feel numb; the numbness then acts as an anesthetic by transferring the numbness to any other body part that it touches.  Jonas: Mosby's Dictionary of Complementary and Alternative Medicine. (c) 2005, Elsevier." - http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/glove+anesthesia
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnosis - explains hypnosis, hypnotherapy, self-hypnosis
• http://www.dicksutphen.com/html/gloveanesthesia.html - shows script

I hope you find pain relief in something, whatever works for you.  Best Wishes.

Disclaimer - This article is for informational use only and is not medical advice.

Dr. Oz Introduces the World to Hypnosis

"Recently on the Dr. Oz show, hypnosis was brought to the public as the easiest, fastest, most effective way to lose weight and change your bad habits. Hypnosis has been around for hundreds of years, but Dr. Oz has made it mainstream." - http://www.prlog.org/11815368-dr-oz-introduces-the-world-to-hypnosis.html

The "Ugly Step Sister of Medicine" is back!!!  Stay tuned on this blog as I and others coax this little used medical tool out of hiding.

Yes, it is unpopular, yet still effective.  See what the  American Medical Association (AMA)   and other professionals say about hypnosis at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotherapy#Systematic_reviews.  Sherman, start up the Way Back Machine to see back to 1958.

Stay tuned for how others combine Hypnosis with the Placebo Effect to make a superb healing tool.  If you want a start, please see The Virtual Healing Machine associated with this blog.

Best Wishes to you all and a very good night.

Can Hypnosis and The Placebo Effect be Combined?

Have you ever felt better after watching a movie?

Maybe the movie put you in a dream-like state.  Maybe the movie touched you on a healing level.

Maybe Hypnosis can be combined with The Placebo Effect to achieve low-cost health care for many common maladies.  


Is this an opportunity waiting to happen?  Topic for Open Innovation?  

Start Materials....

Hypnobo: Perspectives on Hypnosis and Placebo - http://jgh.ca/uploads/Research/razLab/Hypnobo.pdf

Neuropsychoanalysis Vol.12 No.1 by Oliver Turnbull

The Virtual Healing Machine -  https://sites.google.com/site/thevirtualhealingmachine/

How to Make Your Own Healing Machine - http://voices.yahoo.com/how-own-healing-machine-10302427.html?cat=5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnosis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocebo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Kirsch

Tom's Writings Newsletter Blog is now working

Please see http://toms-writings.blogspot.com/.  Thanks

Pill Potentizer Coming Soon! Why not? Multiplies the effect of cheap medicines!

This short video is an animated rundown of the curious properties of the placebo effect - http://www.epicnews.org/195/article/the-placebo-effect/

Remind of you of The Virtual Healing Machine?  - where I have combined the Placebo Effect and Self-Hypnosis.

Best wishes to you all.  Now, that I've said that....I've placed a good thought in your mind...and subconsciously you will have a good day.  Of course, I can't make you do something against your will - You can over-rule my good wishes and have whatever day you want to have.  :-)

Are You Working on The Placebo Effect? - Trying to Figure it out?

This might give you some insights.  Close but no cigar yet.

Endocannabinoids Pitch In for Placebo Effect - NSAID-induced placebo response mediated by CB1 receptors - http://www.painresearchforum.org/news/10072-endocannabinoids-pitch-placebo-effect

Placebo and Nocebo Effects - Suggested Lesson Plan or Science Fair Experiment

An article got me to be thinking....How can Teachers encourage (teach) students to learn about the Placebo Effect....How to design their own Science Fair Experiments, etc. How to evaluate what others think of the Placebo Effect and the Nocebo Effect. How to form their own opinions. If they find it useful, how can they make their own placebo-enhanced medical devices, e.g. "a super band-aid" or "a mommy's mega-kiss to sooth an ouch".

Start Materials....

School Teaching Aid - Just the placebo effect? - http://www.scienceinschool.org/print/2577

Science Fair Project -

http://www.fun-science-project-ideas.com/Science-Fair-topics-Placebo.html

http://www.ehow.com/info_8267628_science-projects-using-placebo-effect.html

Google Search String to find more of the same - (lesson-plan OR science-fair) (placebo OR nocebo)

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Tom sez - To get the topic exciting, ask the students to look at the Museum of Quackery - http://www.museumofquackery.com/. What can we learn from Quackery? Patients say they work, yet Science says no.

Also, what can doctors learn from Medical Hucksters, Faith Healers, etc.? - The great American medicine show: being an illustrated history of hucksters, healers, health evangelists, and heroes from Plymouth Rock to the present by David Armstrong, Elizabeth Metzger Armstrong

Where do Psychodermatology and Psychoimmunology Cross?

Some recent articles got me to be thinking about "Where do Psychodermatology and Psychoimmunology Cross, Interact, or Meet?

Here's what I did to find out more....

Good Google Search String - (psychodermatology (psychoimmunology OR psychoneuroimmunology)) - cut and paste into Search Engine

Particularly Interesting ....

Psychodermatology - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychodermatology

Hypnodermatology - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnodermatology

Psychoneuroimmunology - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychoneuroimmunology

Psychoneuroimmunology and multifactorial psychodermatological diseases - http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7419/is_2010_June/ai_n55040505/pg_5/

Psychodermatology: When the Mind and Skin Interact - http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/display/article/10168/2003159

Psychodermatology: The Psychological Impact of Skin Disorders [Paperback]Carl Walker (Editor), Linda Papadopoulos (Editor)

Biopsychosocial Aspects of Health and Disease Vol. 1 By Konrad Janowski

Prof. Uwe Gieler - www.psychodermatology.info/lebenslauf-engl.html

Open Access Journals on this Topic - http://www.doaj.org/doaj?func=openurl&genre=journal&issn=1019214X&volume=44&issue=suppl+1&date=2010

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Tom sez - Maybe tools for this juncture of this are Hypnosis, Meditation, Guided Imagery, etc.  

I might do a module someday for The  Virtual Healing Machine on Skin Disorders....another on over- or under-active immune system.  Ah well...someday.  Let me know if you have an urgent need for this module.

Cheers!

Major Universities and Hospitals Promoting Placebo Effect - Please Let Us, The Public, Help Too!

Video on Placebo Effect - Depression -


"PiPS Associate Director Irving Kirsch discusses the placebo effect with Lesley Stahl on 60 Minutes this past Sunday." -  http://programinplacebostudies.org/tag/placebo-effect/

Harvard-Wide Program - Beth Israel Medical Center

Tom sez - How about opening this research to the public?  Crowdsourcing?  Open Innovation?  Wiki?

People know what works and what doesn't, even if Science doesn't agree or can't figure out how it works.  Examples - Many people swear by devices that others have said are "Quack Medical Devices".  Who is right? The patient who says it works or ....the skeptic who says it does not or cannot work?

Is Your Doctor Using All the Healing Tools Available to Help You?

Lessons From Recent Research About the Placebo Effect—From Art to Science

"Medicine has been of 2 minds, so to speak, regarding the placebo effect in clinical practice. On the one hand, the placebo is disparaged as an inert and deceptive intervention intended to please or placate the patient but without any potential to produce meaningful therapeutic benefit. On the other hand, placebo effects are touted as having the power to produce substantial symptomatic relief across a wide range of medical conditions. Until recently, scientific data that elucidate the mechanisms of placebo effects and evaluate their potential to significantly enhance patient care have been lacking. During the past decade, there have been advances in scientific research on the placebo effect, paving the way for evidence-based techniques for promoting placebo responses in clinical practice in ethically appropriate ways.¹ Additionally, practitioner surveys indicate that physicians today appear much more comfortable acknowledging the placebo effect as a therapeutic tool consistent with a scientific understanding …" - http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/306/23/2612.short - JAMA.
2011;306(23):2612-2613. doi:10.1001/jama.2011.1850
Also see Nocebo Effects, Patient-Clinician Communication, and Therapeutic Outcomes
JAMA. 2012;307(6):567-568. - See how your doctor might be harming you, whether they know it or not.
You can get these articles through your local library, EBSCO, or other free sources.  If interested, ask your librarian to help you "find more of the same".  Maybe Doctors, Nurses, and other Practitioners want to learn some "people skills".

Bio-Medical Students - What Can We Learn From the Placebo Effect?

"A placebo can take the form of a sugar pill or even a fake surgery. It's often used to test the effectiveness of a trial drug. Ted Kaptchuk, director of Harvard University's Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter, discusses potential applications for the healing power of placebos." from link below...

http://www.npr.org/2012/01/06/144794035/one-scholars-take-on-the-power-of-the-placebo

Tom sez - Research and Engineering Students - Please consider the Placebo Effect a springboard for new medical products.

You might find that some of your ideas are in the History of Quack Medical Devices.  Patients say they work.  Scientists say they are bogus.  Who is right?  Especially, in the areas of pain and depression, which are largely evaluated by the patient.  From what I know, there is no diagnostic test for pain or depression.

Please consider reviewing Quack Medical Devices - What can we learn from them?  How can the Placebo Effect be amplified?  How can the Nocebo Effect be minimized?

You are the future of medicine.  Do you want to make things patients say work....or not?  If a patient is satisfied, isn't that good?

Good Luck!

Enhancing the Healing Response I - Emmett Miller, MD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjZf5Mabrf0 - Video

Snippet from link above...Dr. Miller was a presenter at the Healing Journeys 2008 Cancer as a Turning Point Conference in Sacramento. In this excerpt from the conference, Dr. Miller explores how to tap the vast resources within each individual to work for healing and to achieve wholeness. For more information on our conferences, please visit http://www.healingjourneys.org.


You might have more power than you think to heal yourself!....says writer of this blog....

Is Your Doctor Really Helping You?....or Hurting You?...

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=15460&tag=The%20Nocebo%20Effect&limit=10

http://altmed.creighton.edu/placebo/nocebo.htm

http://harvardmagazine.com/2005/05/the-nocebo-effect.html

Please check out the links above....and consider whether your healthcare professional is really helping you...or hurting you....

Also, please consider the Nocebo Effect when you hear Medical or Pharmaceutical Advertisements....Do you suddenly come up with new symptoms?.....Hmmmmm?

Is your doctor confident in their diagnosis and treatment plan?...Do you really trust them?....Do you really want to get better?...Think about it - Your life might depend on your honest answers...

http://consideronline.org/2012/01/30/the-placebo-effect/

Snippet from link above....

The Placebo Effect

ALL THINGS CONSIDER — BY NAOMI SCHEINERMAN ON JANUARY 30, 2012 AT 12:00 PM 

When I was younger and would fall and scrape my knee, my mother would kiss the painful spot and all of a sudden the pain would go away. The placebo effect is well heard of: individuals have been given fake or phony pills or treatments and gotten better. Such false methods of medical recovery include sugar pills that aid cold or fever symptoms, ordinary skin lotions that cure itching, injections of saline that relieve pain, fake therapies that shrink tumors, and meditation that cures skin diseases. According to WNYC’s RadioLab, these are signs of the pivotal psychological components of curing physical maladies: the combination of a confident physician or healer and a desirous or willing subject. The doctor is imparted with the job of being caretaker and healer to the patient. Without the trusting relationship between patient and doctor, there is little hope for healing. Additionally, the patient must trust in his very capacity to recover: both be given and believe in the confidence to heal. These seem to be, at least on the surface, the components of the placebo effect. This idea is also compatible with the reason that dog therapy, friends and family support, and bright and happy colors are also key ingredients to a successful recovery.

Click on link above for full article...

Useful Information in making Mind-Body Healing Machines

FYI....here's some useful information that I used to make The Virtual Healing Machine.  You might find the information useful too.  See link below.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0ByxQMXIbYsLcN2ZkNjk1NGQtM2Y2Yi00YzM4LWIwNDEtMWZjMDZlNDg1NGU2

Five Tips to Aid Your Health Condition

Five Tips to Aid Your Health Condition

Dr. Ader was ahead of his time. He realized that the mind does indeed affect how a person heals. Today, science is catching up with him, with all the mind-body hype that goes on around us. The founder of Psychoneuroimmunology died, but the concept lives....

http://voices.yahoo.com/five-tips-aid-health-condition-10769785.html?cat=5

Tom's Writings - New Blog - News of all my writing and inventing

Hello All – FYI – I now have a news hub for all my writing and "virtual inventing" – Tom's Writings | TG Ideas LLC

If you want to know of all my activities then please “Follow by E-Mail” or “Subscribe” on Tom's Writings.

I’m off to a fresh start in my blogging. Stay tuned. I’m so excited to start writing, researching, inventing again. 

Best Wishes to you in your endeavors. 

Tom

1. Tom's Writings | TG Ideas LLC (Hub) – New Blog

2. Ideas for Products or Inventions

3. Do It Yourself Health Care

4. Health Information Your Doctor Might Not Even Know About....(Or Might Not Want You to Know About!) – New Blog

5. Interfacing with the Doctor Within

6. Mind-Body Healing Machines - formerly titled Virtual Healing Machine

7. Exploring Life As We Don't Know It – New Blog

8. Other Writings – Yahoo Voices, Helium, etc.