Connection between the body, brain is clear, doctors confirm

http://www.detnews.com/2002/health/0207/21/h06-538665.htm



Wednesday, July 17, 2002

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Connection between the body, brain is clear, doctors confirm

By Cynthia Lambert-Nehr / Special to The Detroit News

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   One thing that baffles Dr. Sara Warber, co-director of the University of Michigan Complementary and Alternative Medical Research Center, is how much of the medical world tends to consider the mind and the body as something separate.
   "What do they think the brain is, if not part of the body?" Warber says. "It's all biochemical. Look at the term 'gut reaction.' Just that statement alone makes the connection. It's saying that our body is reacting to a thought."
   But measuring the effects of positive and negative thinking on the body is difficult, she says.
   "There are not a lot of studies comparing the placebo to the nocebo effect because it is not ethical to induce discomfort in someone," says Dr. Jeffrey Nusbaum, a physician at the Center for Holistic Medicine.
   Nusbaum is familiar with a study conducted in Japan and reported in Hippocrates (Nov. 1999, Vol. 13, number 10), entitled "The Nocebo Effect." Nearly 60 high school boys who said they were allergic to leaves of the lacquer tree were blindfolded. Researchers told the boys that their arm was being brushed with a chestnut leaf, when it actually was the lacquer leaf. The other arm was brushed with the chestnut leaf, but the subjects were told it was the lacquer leaf.
   "Within minutes, the arm they thought was being brushed with the poison leaf developed a bumpy, itchy rash," Nusbaum says. "The one that the actual lacquer leaf touched had no reaction."
   Many physicians, including Nusbaum, don't need scientific studies to confirm what they already either know or strongly suspect. Those patients with positive attitudes generally do better than those who don't.
   Dr. Steven Harrington, a cardiovascular surgeon at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit, sees this phenomenon on a regular basis. "Some people have extremely positive attitudes, and they usually do very well," Harrington says. "They are the ones who are up walking the next day and out of the hospital after bypass surgery after three days. These are the people who want to go back to work after two weeks. They're not afraid of anything."

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Past and current Scandals - columns by Sandy Gottstein (aka Mintz)*

02/08/10 - Scandals: Political Science and You!

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04/11/08 - Is Changing The Vaccine Schedule Enough?

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* ►February 8, 2010 - URGENT: Call Now, Stop NY Bill, Allows Kids To Decide All STD Vaccines Allowed Without Your Consent - The Autism Action Coalition

* ►February 8, 2010 - The Conflicting Views of Dr. Ben Goldacre and the Wakefield Affair - Ben Goldacre The conflicting views of Dr Ben Goldacre and the Wakefield affair: dumbing the public down. By John Stone - Age of Autism

* ►February 8, 2010 - Inovio Biomedical Cervical Cancer Therapeutic Vaccine Generates Dose-Related Immune Response in Clinical Trial - Inovio via BusinessWire via Technology Marketing Corporation - "VGX-3100 is a DNA vaccine targeting the E6 and E7 proteins of human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 and is delivered via in vivo electroporation. Similar to previously reported data from the initial lowest dose cohort of this phase I trial, the vaccine was found to be generally safe and well tolerated. While previously reported data showed significant cellular and humoral immune responses, data from this second, intermediate dose group highlighted a significantly increased and dose-related immune response specific to the antigens targeted by the vaccine."..."While recent HPV preventive vaccines have been successful in protecting against infections that may lead to cervical cancer, Inovio's therapeutic vaccine targets the millions of women already infected with HPV and is intended to treat pre-cancerous cells and cervical cancer caused by this virus. Current vaccines do not serve this group of women," Dr. Kim added."

* ►February 6, 2010 - Autism Findings Retracted - The New American - "Actress Holly Robinson Peete remembers, 'When my son was two-and-a-half, he was just recovering from an ear infection and had been on antibiotics, therefore his immune system was suppressed. He had already missed several appointments for his vaccination so his pediatrician wanted to catch him up on all of them in the same day. Althrough I asked if he’d consider waiting or breaking up the cocktail, which contains three viruses, he laughed me out of the office and belittled me. I firmly believe that it took my son to a place of no return and his body could not handle it. He had a violent reaction with convulsions and then he stopped talking and slipped into a silence. He no longer said, 'Hi, Mommy,' he no longer responded to his name and he no longer made eye contact.”

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