WEBVTT - #2040 The Consequences Of Thought - Harps 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:01.760 Good a team. 0:00:02.000 --> 0:00:05.480 So today we're talking about something that everyone experiences, but 0:00:05.680 --> 0:00:08.800 very few people really understand. 0:00:08.800 --> 0:00:10.720 We talk about it on this show quite a bit. 0:00:10.800 --> 0:00:12.960 I talk about it quite a bit, but I wanted 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:16.600 to do a different kind of a deep dive into 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.560 the topic. And we're talking about thoughts, specifically, we're talking 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:25.040 about the potential ramifications and consequences good and bad of thinking. 0:00:26.000 --> 0:00:29.520 You know me, I'm fucking obsessed with the mind. I'm 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:33.320 obsessed with thinking. I'm obsessed with what we can do 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:37.440 with our mind. I think it is the most misunderstood 0:00:37.720 --> 0:00:43.240 yet powerful component of the human experience. I don't think 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:47.440 we know how to use our mind properly. I don't 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:51.120 know that we ever will. I think, you know, this 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:52.919 is something I think about a lot. It's something I 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:55.160 study a lot. I'm doing a PhD in it, blah 0:00:55.200 --> 0:00:59.960 blah blah blah, and I'm still I'm still baby stepping it, Nonetheles. 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:01.760 So I think it's really good to talk about. That's 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:02.440 what we're going to do. 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:06.280 So we're talking about thoughts, and they're not just ideas floating. 0:01:05.959 --> 0:01:09.440 Around in your head, but they are a. 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:12.839 Physiological reality, or they can have a physiological consequence that's 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:17.240 for sure. The truth that a single thought can change 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:19.279 what's going on in your body. 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:21.440 How amazing is that. 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:24.440 So your body's not responding to an event or a situation, 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:28.000 or some change in some kind of external stimuli, but 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:32.040 rather your thoughts. A single thought can change your blood 0:01:32.040 --> 0:01:34.360 pressure or what's happening with your hormones and your breathing 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:37.240 and your muscle tension, and your immune system and your 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:38.040 nervous system. 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:41.360 I think most people think of thoughts. 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:49.520 As kind of intangible, harmless, weightless, just kind of mental activity, 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:53.920 something that happens in the background, something that's kind of 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:57.960 separate to the body, something that has no real consequence 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.880 unless we act on the thought. But that's actually wrong, 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:06.400 it's completely wrong. So your body is not responding to 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.360 the world. I'm going to say that again. Your body 0:02:09.400 --> 0:02:11.800 is not responding to the world. Your body is responding 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:17.480 to your interpretation of the world. Your body is responding 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:21.560 to the meaning that you create through that window through 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:25.120 which you observe and process and understand and dissect and 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:29.680 tell stories about the world. Your body is responding to 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.480 the story that your mind is telling you about what 0:02:32.680 --> 0:02:37.320 is going on. Your brain is running your physiology moment 0:02:37.400 --> 0:02:42.120 to moment based on what it believes is happening. 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.200 I'm going to say that again. Your brain. 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:50.839 Is running your physiology moment to moment based on what 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:52.400 your brain thinks. 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:56.560 Is happening, not what's happening. 0:02:57.639 --> 0:02:59.720 If you're in the middle of a shitty situation, but 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:02.680 you think it's a shitty situation, guess what's happening in 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:06.040 your body not bad stuff, good stuff. 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:08.040 If you're in a what. 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.160 For other people would be a chaotic circumstance or environment 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:15.600 or environment, but in the middle of that outward kind 0:03:15.639 --> 0:03:20.440 of chaos, you are calm. Guess what's happening with your 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:25.160 nervous system. It's calm, it's parasympathetic, not sympathetic. Guess what's 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:26.840 going on with your heart rate. It's low, not high, 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:29.680 your blood pressure low, not high. Not because you're in 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:36.560 a calm situation, but because you interpret that thing as calm, 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:41.480 as not a problem, as not chaotic, as not a catastrophe, 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:46.720 and as a result, your physiology is reflective of the story, not. 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:48.600 The situation or circumstance. 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:55.240 This is why a stressful thought can increase our heart 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:57.200 rate without anything happening. 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.960 It's why embarrassment can make your face go red. 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.320 It's why fear can make your stomach drop in inverted commas, 0:04:04.360 --> 0:04:08.360 It's why worry can literally make you feel sick. It's 0:04:08.400 --> 0:04:13.960 why anticipation of something can give you goose bumps. The 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:17.640 thought is the trigger. The body is the response to 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:24.479 the trigger the thought. The body just does what it's 0:04:24.560 --> 0:04:28.640 told to do, essentially, or the body just does what 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:34.520 makes sense to the body in accordance with the information 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:41.919 in inverted commas, information I should really say interpretation that 0:04:42.040 --> 0:04:42.560 it's getting. 0:04:43.200 --> 0:04:47.000 So today we're going to explore all that. 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:49.840 You know that I've been fascinated with place ebos and 0:04:49.880 --> 0:04:53.280 no cibos and you're not sure exactly what that means. 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:56.480 We're going to have a look at how belief can 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:00.480 reduce pain, change movement, alter healing, and influence the very 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:03.040 chemicals that your brain produces. We're going to look at 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:05.560 the place Ebo and no Cibo effect and what happens 0:05:05.560 --> 0:05:09.920 when your brain decides that something is safe or dangerous, 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:15.680 or possible or hopeless or already improving. Because when you 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:18.280 understand that a thought can change your chemistry, I mean 0:05:18.360 --> 0:05:22.480 really understand it and understand that an expectation can change 0:05:22.480 --> 0:05:27.640 your nervous system and understand that your belief can change 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:31.159 your biology. You start to realize that your mind is 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:37.280 not just observing life, it's shaping it literally physically in 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:45.800 real time. And this is the consequence of thought. So 0:05:45.880 --> 0:05:48.440 let's start here. I want to share some stories with 0:05:48.520 --> 0:05:51.560 you today, which I fucking love. So today's quite it's 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:53.360 almost like a storytelling episode. 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:55.200 I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think. 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.039 But I want to tell you so story one I 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:01.120 want to share with you I'm calling the knee surgery 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:05.240 that wasn't the knee surgery that wasn't. So in the 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:09.960 nine nineties, there was a surgeon named doctor Bruce Moseley. 0:06:10.080 --> 0:06:13.839 He worked out of primarily out of Houston. He worked 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:17.080 with NBA teams, he worked with elite athletes, and he 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:20.760 kept seeing the same thing, and that was arthroscopic knee 0:06:20.760 --> 0:06:26.840 surgery for osteos for osteoarthritis. And it often didn't seem 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:31.160 really to do much clinically or medically or physiologically, but somehow, 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:35.279 for some reason, patients swore by it, they swore that 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.880 it helped. But him from a clinical and an observational perspective, 0:06:38.920 --> 0:06:40.880 he didn't really think it did much. But what he 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:44.279 did observe was that the people who had the operation 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:50.080 really believed right despite what he saw physically, clinically, medically, 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:54.800 what he observed was that those people really believed that 0:06:54.839 --> 0:07:01.000 the operation did something. So he did something really a 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:03.760 little bit fucking sneaky. Well not that sneaky because it 0:07:03.800 --> 0:07:06.280 was a controlled study, but he ran a controlled study 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:11.040 with three groups and he did surgery in inverted commas 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.960 on these three groups. So group one that had the surgery, 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:18.600 they had the proper surgery. They had the full arthroscopic surgery, 0:07:18.600 --> 0:07:21.200 that cleaning out of the old you know people going, no, 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:23.000 I'm just going in to get the knee cleaned out. 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:26.560 Well that's that's generally, this is arthroscopic surgery. That's what 0:07:26.560 --> 0:07:27.239 they're talking about. 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:28.640 So Group one. 0:07:28.520 --> 0:07:30.160 Had the cleaning out of the knee, they had the 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:34.080 actual operation. Group two, I don't actually know exactly what 0:07:34.480 --> 0:07:36.880 this is. I couldn't find it in the research specifically, 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.559 but they had a partial procedure, they had something done, 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:43.559 but not the full surgery. And Group three they had 0:07:43.880 --> 0:07:47.440 placebo surgery. They had fuck all done. So they the 0:07:47.560 --> 0:07:52.280 patients were wheeled into the theater, they were put under anesthesia. 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:58.000 There were three small incisions made in the knee, so 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:02.440 they thought they were having like it replicated the actual surgery, 0:08:02.840 --> 0:08:06.360 but there was no surgery done. There was no actual 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:10.160 surgical repair, so they took them into theater, they put 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.600 them under anesthetic. I don't think i'd want that done anyway. 0:08:13.640 --> 0:08:15.640 They made some small cuts in their knee, the same 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.280 cuts as the people who had the actual surgery would have, 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:21.360 so when they came out of surgery looked like that 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.400 had surgery, but nothing was actually done. There was nothing 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.840 invasive in their knee at all. So they stitched them 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:31.960 back up, not having had an operation, and sent them. 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:33.480 Back to rehab as normal. 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:37.200 Now, the patients did not know which group they are in, 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:42.320 which of the three groups are in. Also, interestingly, the 0:08:42.360 --> 0:08:45.840 surgeons performing the follow up assessments and the treatment team, 0:08:45.880 --> 0:08:47.920 the clinicians, they didn't know. 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:52.280 Even And so what was the result. 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:57.760 Well, the placebo surgery patients improved just as much, just 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.600 as much as those who had the actual surgery surgery. 0:09:00.920 --> 0:09:04.920 In fact, in some measures, they improved more patients who 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:09.000 had nothing done. In fact, so there was nothing invasive 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.800 done inside the knee, They reported less pain, They reported 0:09:12.840 --> 0:09:16.480 better mobility and greater confidence walking and climbing the stairs. 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:19.920 One of the patients in the plus C bow group, 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:23.679 who had lots of trouble, actually returned to playing professional basketball, 0:09:23.920 --> 0:09:28.920 having no idea that nothing had actually been done inside 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:31.719 his knee. Yes, he had three superficial cuts, but there 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:37.000 was no real surgery. So why does this matter. Why 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:40.240 does this matter? Well, the surgery had been working for 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:44.360 years and the good doc believes and evidence would suggest 0:09:44.360 --> 0:09:46.640 that it was working not because of any kind of 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:52.959 physiological or mechanical fix, but rather because the patients believed 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:57.679 that something had been repaired. Doctors believed that they were 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:05.120 helping everyone doc does, patients, family, Everyone expected improvement and 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:09.000 the brain delivered the change. So this study really blew 0:10:09.080 --> 0:10:12.120 up the orthopedics world when it was published in the 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.000 New England Journal of Medicine in the early two thousands. 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:17.439 So if you want to look it up, I think 0:10:17.440 --> 0:10:21.640 it was two thousand and two. And it forced healthcare 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:25.560 to confront something that was like an uncomfortable or an 0:10:25.600 --> 0:10:31.160 inconvenient truth, and that is that belief can trigger physical 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:38.640 recovery pathways that looked like the result of surgery. And 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:41.280 one of the ever present questions for me around this 0:10:41.559 --> 0:10:48.920 is why, why is this stuff? Why is understanding place ebos, 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.840 understanding how the mind can heal the body, Understanding the 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:57.200 potential and the power of this mind body connection, this 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:01.640 psychology physiology link. I know the answer, by the way, 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:02.840 but I'm going to ask the question. 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.120 The question is why the fuck are we not studying this? 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:10.680 Why is this not the most important question being asked 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:18.599 and answered in health, in recovery, in medicine, in wellness, 0:11:21.880 --> 0:11:24.520 and of course the question is because if all of 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:27.520 a sudden we could heal ourselves. Imagine if we learned 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:32.480 how to actually heal ourselves from nearly everything and anything. 0:11:32.559 --> 0:11:35.600 Imagine if we could figure out that I can actually 0:11:35.679 --> 0:11:39.560 lower my blood pressure by doing this or doing without medication. 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:42.000 I'm not suggesting you stop any medication, by the way, 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:45.360 This is not what today is about. I'm just opening 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:50.920 the door on this fascinating reality that there are things 0:11:50.960 --> 0:11:54.959 that happen in medicine and outside of medicine, in healing 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:59.480 and in health that make in inverted commas no sense. 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.000 There would be lots of organizations and companies and sellers 0:12:03.000 --> 0:12:05.720 of pills and powders and potions and surgeries. Of course, 0:12:07.160 --> 0:12:11.800 who would suffer incredibly financially if we all figured out 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.680 that we didn't need all of the things we think 0:12:14.760 --> 0:12:19.559 we do. Again, don't confuse what I'm saying. I definitely 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:23.040 think medicine and clinical treatment and doctors and nurses and 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:25.480 all of that. You know, of course, there's a place, 0:12:26.480 --> 0:12:29.959 there's a place. But this is also a really fucking 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:31.360 door to open. 0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:35.240 All right. Story number two, I love this one. 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:44.160 So I'm calling this the Parkinson's dopamine that wasn't so 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:50.840 let me explain that. So Parkinston Parkinson's disease involves the 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:57.199 loss of dopamine producing neurons, those feel good neurons, and 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:01.040 that causes tremors because a whole lot of neurological issues. 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:05.720 It causes difficulty with movement, with walking, with mobility, with balance, 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:07.680 with control, with all of those things. 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:09.520 So one of. 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:15.040 The things that happens with Parkinson's is that these neurons are. 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:15.600 Destroyed or lost. 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:18.240 And in the early two thousands, researchers ran a trial 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:24.360 to test a new drug, which researchers are always doing. 0:13:25.440 --> 0:13:29.600 And of course these need to be double blind studies, 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:31.960 where some people are getting a medication, some people are not. 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:35.920 And of course, as as is commonplace in this kind 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.760 of research, some participants got the actual medication and some 0:13:39.840 --> 0:13:40.960 got a place ebo. 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:43.360 Of course, nobody knows what they're on. 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:47.120 People don't know whether or not they're getting the real 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:52.240 medication or a pill full of nothing. And what happened, 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:54.760 and again you know it's coming, but I'm going to 0:13:54.760 --> 0:13:58.000 tell you anyway, what happens shocked everybody because the placebo group, 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:00.760 so the people who've got no drug, they thought they 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:02.679 were getting a drug, or the thought they might have 0:14:02.760 --> 0:14:03.640 been getting a drug. 0:14:04.280 --> 0:14:05.480 And time and time. 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:08.480 Again, it seems that people who do this kind of research, 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:12.520 whether or not whatever group they're in, most people seem 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:14.040 to think that they're getting the drug. 0:14:14.240 --> 0:14:16.480 I don't know what that is about. That's another episode. 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.320 But anyway, the placebo groups, so the group that were 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:24.320 taking nothing, nothing with any therapeutic, I think their starch 0:14:24.400 --> 0:14:27.400 I think it's just starched the tablets. Anyway, So they 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:34.640 showed reduced tremors, smoother movement, improved walking, better facial control. 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:38.360 But like the really fucking astonishing bit of this research 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:41.640 in their study in particular, was what happened with the 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:45.560 brain scans. So the placebo patients, the people that were 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:49.680 getting nothing, they thought they were getting something, and there 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:53.360 was a huge surge of dopamine. Remember they're neurons that 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.840 produced dopamine are badly affected. But for some reason the 0:14:56.920 --> 0:15:00.840 patient's taking nothing, all of a sudden, who couldn't generally 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:04.360 produce dopamine at any significant level, all of a sudden, 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:09.200 dopamine was flooding their brain. Not pretend dopamine, but actual, real, 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:14.040 measurable dopamine. The brain produced the chemical because the person 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:16.160 believed they. 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.520 Were beating treatment. They were being treated, I'm. 0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.600 Going to say that again, So they when they looked 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.640 at their brain, their brain was flooded with dopamine. Even 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.600 though these people who couldn't generally produce any real level 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:31.720 of dopamine were not getting any drug to help them 0:15:31.760 --> 0:15:35.200 do so. But because they thought they were being treated, 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:42.320 and this wasn't imagination, this was neurochemical reality. So their 0:15:42.400 --> 0:15:45.720 expectation activated part of the brain called the nuclear circumbence, 0:15:45.920 --> 0:15:49.680 and that triggers dopamine release and temporarily restored for them 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:56.160 movement function, balance, coordination, control, smooth out tremors, all of 0:15:56.200 --> 0:16:01.640 these things that were considered to be phiz ieologically impossible 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:09.760 without medication, but they I guess they medicated themselves with 0:16:09.840 --> 0:16:10.320 their mind. 0:16:10.600 --> 0:16:14.520 So why does this matter? Well, Parkinson's is. 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:24.360 A neurological disease, hard physical neurodegeneration, real biological physiological. 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:25.720 Damage. 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:29.880 Yet belief alone for these people change their neurochemistry and behavior. 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:35.840 So the placebo didn't just change how they felt. It 0:16:35.880 --> 0:16:38.920 wasn't just a psychological shift or an emotional shift. So 0:16:39.000 --> 0:16:42.040 it didn't just change how they felt. It literally changed 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:45.600 how their brain worked. And then as a byproduct of that, 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.200 what was happening in their brain, then what was happening 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:52.040 in their nervous system. More broadly, what was happening you know, 0:16:52.120 --> 0:16:55.720 in their muscular system, neuromuscular combination and so on. 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:57.400 So this forced neuroscience to. 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:02.360 Rethink this particular study for neuroscience to rethink the mind 0:17:02.400 --> 0:17:07.879 body boundary, the role of expectation in motor symptoms, and 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:12.280 how belief interacts with the basil ganglia also a crucial. 0:17:11.960 --> 0:17:14.359 Part of the brain with this and dopamine pathways. 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.159 And as a consequent this research became one of the 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:21.760 strongest demonstrations that the brain is not a passenger, it's 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:26.119 the driver and So what's the takeaway. 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:28.600 I guess the takeaway is that your. 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:34.960 Brain isn't reacting to reality, it's reacting to what it 0:17:35.200 --> 0:17:36.920 thinks reality is. 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:41.400 Alright, I've got a few more. This one's a belter. 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:46.680 So story three is called the hotel housekeepers who lost 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:52.320 weight by changing their thinking. So Harvard psychologist Ellen Langer 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.600 Ellen el En a lady ran a study in the 0:17:55.600 --> 0:17:57.960 middle of the two thousands. In the mid two thousands 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:03.280 with hotel room at tenant. So these ladies, they work 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:07.000 for hotels. They cleaned rooms all day, They changed lenin, 0:18:07.040 --> 0:18:11.840 they vacuumed, they scrub bathways, They walked miles and miles 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:15.640 or kilometers and kilometers of hallways. I would think, I mean, 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:18.520 I don't know, but I would guess somebody's step count 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:21.640 who does this kind of job would have to be well, 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:25.160 well over fifteen to twenty thousand steps a day, maybe 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:28.680 heading towards thirty but anyway, so they were moving a lot, 0:18:28.960 --> 0:18:31.600 a lot. In other words, they were doing the equivalent 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:37.440 of moderate to vigorous exercise every day. But when they 0:18:37.480 --> 0:18:41.320 interviewed all of these women, most of them didn't think 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:45.000 of their work as exercise. In fact, most of them 0:18:45.119 --> 0:18:49.679 considered themselves as being somewhat inactive. So I'm going to 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:51.879 say that again, they didn't really think of their work 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:56.119 as exercise or working out. They believed that they weren't 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.240 active at all and described most of them described themselves 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:04.080 as not really exercising, and as a result, their bodies 0:19:04.400 --> 0:19:05.440 matched their beliefs. 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:06.760 Most of them had. 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:12.360 Higher blood pressure, higher body fat, and lower perceived fitness. 0:19:12.920 --> 0:19:17.480 So the researcher Ellen Langer taught one group, actually educated them, 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:22.080 taught them that they were already doing what counted as exercise. 0:19:22.160 --> 0:19:28.280 She educated them about energy expenditure, heart rate elevation, calorie burning, 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:32.000 muscle conditioning, and that was it. 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:33.920 Like there was She just ed. 0:19:34.000 --> 0:19:39.520 She actually explained to them quite clearly, succinctly in Layman's terms, 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:40.200 that what they. 0:19:40.040 --> 0:19:41.360 Were doing was already. 0:19:41.359 --> 0:19:45.040 They were working out, they were exercising, they were moving 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:48.479 a lot, and that their job was the equivalent of 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:52.720 a daily moderate to vigorous exercise program. They were already 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:57.080 doing it, so nothing else changed. They just told them this. 0:19:57.240 --> 0:20:00.240 They just informed this them of this. They just gave 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:04.800 them new information. So now the women were doing the 0:20:04.880 --> 0:20:07.480 exact same thing, but they had a new story. They 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:09.919 had a new belief, They had new awareness, they had 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:15.040 new understanding, they had new thinking. So nothing else changed, 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:18.639 no dietary change. They didn't walk anymore steps. There was 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:22.560 no adjustment or change to their routine. The other group, 0:20:22.800 --> 0:20:25.320 there were two groups, the other group, they didn't get that. 0:20:26.119 --> 0:20:29.920 They got no information, and then they tracked Both groups 0:20:30.240 --> 0:20:34.960 over the next four were hicks. This is fucking hilarious anyway, 0:20:35.480 --> 0:20:39.000 And what happened after four weeks. The group who now 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:44.720 believed and understood that they were exercising, lost body fat, 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:49.959 lost weight across the board, saw lower blood pressure, and 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:55.040 improved waste to hip ratios, so reduction in waste and 0:20:55.160 --> 0:21:01.680 hip measurements. And again, they didn't change anything about their behavior. 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:06.880 The only change was how they thought about what they 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:10.960 were already doing. Their physiology shifted to match their new 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:12.120 self perception. 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:14.919 I'm going to say it again. The only change was 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:16.000 not what they were doing. 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:18.880 They didn't eat less, they didn't move more, they didn't 0:21:18.920 --> 0:21:22.520 have some new strategy. Everything was groundhog day. It was 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:24.960 exactly as it was before. They were doing the same thing, 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:27.960 the same way, the same job, in the same environment, 0:21:28.040 --> 0:21:30.520 but all of a sudden they had a new understanding 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:34.800 and new awareness. They were thinking differently and their physiology, 0:21:34.880 --> 0:21:37.359 that is, their body changed and what was happening in 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:41.760 their body changed to match their new thinking or to 0:21:41.840 --> 0:21:45.080 match their new self perception. And the other group nothing, 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:52.760 no changes status quo. So so why does this matter so. 0:21:54.480 --> 0:21:54.720 Well? 0:21:54.840 --> 0:22:01.400 It wasn't positive thinking or motivational quotes. It was cognitive reframing. 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:04.520 It was cognitive. 0:22:04.600 --> 0:22:05.880 It was a different story. 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:10.320 And as a result of that, we saw measurable metabolic change, 0:22:10.960 --> 0:22:16.199 cardiovascular change, health change. And it suggests that your body 0:22:16.240 --> 0:22:22.080 doesn't respond to just what you do, but it also 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:25.840 responds to your understanding of what you're doing or what 0:22:25.880 --> 0:22:32.480 you believe you're doing. So expectation shapes hormone signaling, a 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:37.399 sympathetic tone, which is your level of sympathetic nervous system activation, 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:46.000 metabolic efficiency, how well your body metabolizes calories, energy, motivation. 0:22:45.600 --> 0:22:49.560 And effort and recovery. 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:53.639 So in a snapshot, with this study, especially, I guess, 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:59.239 meaning Alter's biology, I've got all the references for all 0:22:59.600 --> 0:23:02.840 of these if you ever want. But yeah, that was 0:23:02.880 --> 0:23:06.000 done across that study that was Crumb and Langer two 0:23:06.080 --> 0:23:12.040 thousand and seven. It was eighty four participants So the 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:15.520 control group was forty and the participants were forty four, 0:23:15.640 --> 0:23:19.720 so it's not a massive study, but it was very 0:23:19.760 --> 0:23:26.560 controlled and if nothing else, you know, it's fascinating. No 0:23:26.640 --> 0:23:30.960 behavior or activity level or dietary changes happened. Only the 0:23:31.080 --> 0:23:35.119 meaning of their existing work was reframed, and as a 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:40.959 result they saw measurable, observable, real actual changes in their body. 0:23:44.280 --> 0:23:46.840 So the next one's interesting too. This is almost the 0:23:47.119 --> 0:23:49.560 well it's not almost, it's the reverse. So this time, 0:23:49.680 --> 0:23:53.879 rather than plus cebo, where we think something good or 0:23:53.920 --> 0:23:57.239 we take an inert thing thinking it's not inert, it's 0:23:57.359 --> 0:23:59.560 rather powerful and as a result we get a powerful 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:02.719 outcome despite the fact that there was no power in 0:24:02.760 --> 0:24:07.720 the thing, the drug, the medicine, the whatever. No cibo 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:15.520 is talking about when a negative expectation or belief causes 0:24:15.720 --> 0:24:19.560 a negative physical or psychological response, even though the treatment 0:24:20.400 --> 0:24:24.000 or the situation itself is harmless. 0:24:24.000 --> 0:24:25.320 So in other words, if. 0:24:25.160 --> 0:24:28.199 A place ebo makes you feel better because you believe it, 0:24:28.320 --> 0:24:32.399 and no cibo spell noc ebo makes you feel worse, 0:24:33.359 --> 0:24:38.600 like literally worse and also physically worse, with negative physical consequences. 0:24:39.320 --> 0:24:42.800 Quite often, as you'll hear in a moment because you 0:24:42.880 --> 0:24:44.240 expect something bad has happened. 0:24:44.280 --> 0:24:45.280 So I'm going to say that again. 0:24:45.560 --> 0:24:48.720 If a placebo makes you better, like literally makes you 0:24:48.760 --> 0:24:51.560 better because you believe it, and no CIBO will make 0:24:51.600 --> 0:24:52.359 you worse. 0:24:52.160 --> 0:24:54.560 Because you expect something to happen. 0:24:54.880 --> 0:24:58.320 So, for example, someone who's told a medication has strong 0:24:58.359 --> 0:25:01.879 side effects, they start experiencing those side effects even if 0:25:01.920 --> 0:25:07.000 they're given a sugar pill. And again there's not psychosmatic. 0:25:07.040 --> 0:25:07.560 These are real. 0:25:07.720 --> 0:25:12.240 These are real physical side effects. A person believes the 0:25:12.320 --> 0:25:16.479 harmless smell is toxic, so they smell something another example 0:25:16.520 --> 0:25:21.960 of a nose. They smell something and they think that 0:25:21.960 --> 0:25:25.320 that is a toxic thing despite the fact that it's harmless. 0:25:25.320 --> 0:25:30.480 There's there's no danger. Nonetheless, they develop headaches and nauseas, nausea, 0:25:30.840 --> 0:25:35.360 and they start to panic. Being told you're back, for example, 0:25:35.520 --> 0:25:39.200 is damaged when it's not really damaged. Maybe you've got 0:25:39.200 --> 0:25:42.280