How Your Thoughts Can Affect Your Health

Posted by | March 10, 2010 | Blog | No Comments


Have you ever wondered if there is any scientific evidence supporting the notion of spontaneous remission, faith healing and other described miracles? Until recently there hasn’t been much scientific information to support these claims, but this is not to say that they don’t occur, because they do. There also hasn’t been much information about what we can do to assist in our own healing, until now.

The latest information emerging from the science labs is that we now have the opportunity to play a part in our own healing. According to leading scientists our thoughts can affect our health, both physically and emotionally, and there is data to prove it.

All things follow patterns, or at the very least, contain some. One of the consistent commonalities (patterns) is how much the thinking process of an individual contributes to whatever problem s/he may be experiencing

Dr. Deepak Chopra tells us we process some 60,000 thoughts daily. On one level, this is a good thing. By repeating many of the same thoughts daily, the world remains somewhat predictable, and most of the time is reasonably safe, and therefore knowable.

At the same time, some of those thoughts are about problems:

  • How much pain we are in.

  • That idiot co-worker.

  • That spouse that drinks too much, or controls too much.

  • There isn’t enough money.

  • A long term desire to lose weight but, “I have it on good authority I inherited the dreaded fat gene, so it really isn’t my fault.”

What Dr. Chopra and many others propose is that we shift our awareness a bit, and begin to pay attention to our thoughts. If we were to follow a thought on its journey, that journey would take us first through the brain and then into the body, and then all the way down to the genes themselves. Along the way we would begin to realize that yes, thoughts do in fact influence health, and that is only one effect among many. For example:

  • It has long been taught that the immune system is autonomous, therefore unaffected by attitude, emotional state, and consciousness. We now know this is incorrect.

  • It has also been a common belief that the genes we inherit are written in stone, so if we happen to be born from a defective gene pool, then that’s just too bad. We will just have to accept that we are stuck with them just the way they are. Also not true.

As some of you know, the concept of mind over matter is not new. History is filled with stories of spontaneous healing, or that someone, somehow, overcame some great physical limitation, and did so in spite of some dire prognosis. It is only in the last few years that science has advanced to the point where we can now chart the pathways of a thought all the way down to the genes within each cell. One of the values to be extracted and utilized from this new knowledge is to add credibility to the concept of mind over matter.

For those trained in the sciences, you will be aware of the backlash of putting forth information, such as an opinion or belief that is not backed up by research. The worlds of medicine, biology, neurophysiology, etc., use microscopes and a vast variety of other forms of tests to prove things. A favorite “written in stone” rule is: “If you can’t see it or measure it, ‘then it doesn’t exist.'” This of course presents a problem. Namely, how can a thought be measured, and how does non physical thought (nothingness) come to be processed by the brain?

Dr. Candace Pert, a neurophysicist, along with countless colleagues, has been mapping the brain and pathways of something called neuropeptides through the body. After 15 years of research, she and her colleagues could only form one conclusion. The thoughts themselves, although abstract or non material, instantaneously invoke chemical reactions in the brain, called neuropeptides. The neuropeptides then flow to different parts of the body, influencing it on a physical level. Since the brain is an equal opportunity employer, it does not discriminate as to whether the thought is useful or not. It will process a beneficial thought just as easily as one that is not.

When Dr. Pert was asked, “What is the interface or junction, where thoughts somehow affect us physically?” She replied, “The emotions. The emotions are the currency of exchange between mind and body.”

Dr. Pert was also asked if she believed this to be a fact. “The facts are in the laboratory research. All we do is report them,” was the answer. So finally, we are discovering the concrete proof that Dr. Deepak Chopra, Dr. Bernie Siegel and countless others around the world have been trying to tell us for years: Our state of mind influences our state of health. Therefore, doesn’t it make sense in view of these findings to look after our mental well being, as well as the physical?

What many do not realize is that our emotional and mental patterns stem from the subconscious mind and not the conscious mind. The subconscious mind is the part of our mind that controls our thoughts, emotions and actions without our conscious intentions. The only way to change them is to reprogram our subconscious mind.

James Griffin, the Stress Management and Health Coach at the Markham Natural Health Centre, specializes in changing beliefs, thought patterns and emotional patterns to make positive changes in people’s lives. “By applying similar techniques used to help people make the positive changes in their lives,” says Griffin, “I could help people to reactivate and accelerate the healing of their physical body by releasing any negative emotional blocks and beliefs that are in their way and by creating new positive beliefs, thought patterns and emotion patterns on the subconscious level.”

James Griffin

Stress Management & Health Coach