Diagnosed with Despair: How Negative Medical Prognoses Can Become Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

Key Points

• The nocebo effect is the opposite of the placebo effect. It occurs when negative expectations about a treatment lead to worse outcomes, even if the treatment itself is not harmful.
• A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that when people were given a false-positive diagnosis of cancer, their risk of death from heart-related events increased significantly within one week.
• This suggests that the power of belief and negative emotions can have a profound impact on health outcomes.
• The video argues that physicians have an ethical responsibility to be aware of the nocebo effect and to avoid giving patients negative diagnoses or prognoses based on outdated or inaccurate information.
• Instead, physicians should focus on providing hope and support to patients, and on educating them about the body's self-healing abilities.

Additional Notes

• The video is from the docu-series "The Truth About Cancer: A Global Quest," which promotes alternative cancer treatments.
• The study referenced in the video above can be found discussed here: https://greenmedinfo.com/blog/research-some-cancer-diagnoses-kill-quicker-cancer
• Learn more about the Nocebo effect on the Greenmedinfo.com database: https://greenmedinfo.com/anti-therapeutic-action/nocebo-effect
• For more information on cancer through the lens of the New Biology, read Sayer Ji's REGENERATE: Unlocking Your Body's Radical Resilience Through the New Biology.