Positive Mental Attitude – Promotes Median Age?
You’ve probably heard it a thousand times before: Positive Mental Attitude promotes health and healing! Others call it Mind over matter. To some degree, this is self-explanatory! We are all aware that we can accomplish much more when we are in a positive frame of mind. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the concept early in my life and have made it one of my guiding principles. In his book, Think and Grow Rich , Napoleon Hill equates the mind to a laser-targeted missile that directs our subconscious mind towards a desired goal. No goal, no progress! A modern day example may well be that of Alex Trebek, who is currently defying the odds and apparently beating Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer. His disease, like Progressive Muscular Atrophy and other motor neuron diseases is usually considered a death sentence with extremely poor odds of survival. Alex ascribes his remarkable progress to his own positive attitude AND to the prayers and positive thoughts of millions of his fans.
My own case tends to back up this idea too. When I received my initial diagnosis, back in October 2017, I determined that I would do everything in my power to mitigate, if not conquer, this disease. To that end, I have spent countless hours researching ALS, MND and PMA looking at what may have worked for others and devising my own survival plan. In most cases of MND, whether people are fast or slow progressors, the rate of decline tends to be relatively constant. My physiotherapist opined: “History of progression is the best predictor of the future”. How then, do I explain that in my first six months after diagnosis, my ALS-FRS-R score declined by 6 points but in the 14 months since then, I have only lost a single point?
Some might say that it is the actions that I have taken by having mercury amalgams removed, sourcing helpful supplements and naturopathic remedies as well as taking the only officially sanctioned medication Rilutek/Riluzole. Of course, these may well be contributing factors, but, with the exception of the Rilutek, I did these things myself because of my attitude not because of direction from the medical profession. The first and necessary step is taking action. Hoping or Praying for a positive outcome will not likely have any effect without taking positive action towards the desired goal.
Before you dismiss this idea out of hand, consider the following excerpt from a scholarly paper: Prognostic factors in ALS: A critical review:
Although often overlooked by clinicians, psychosocial factors seem to play an important role in ALS outcome. A longitudinal study has found that patients with psychological distress (measured with a battery of psychological assessment scales evaluating perceived stress, depression, hopelessness, anger expression, and purpose in life) had a 2.24-fold (95% CI 1.08–4.64) increased risk of dying than patients with psychological well-being (53). A longitudinal assessment of mood and self-esteem on survival showed that lower mood predicted a faster progression and a shorter survival (54). However, it is also possible that this effect is related to the fact that low mood is the consequence of having a more rapidly progressive disease. In an analysis of the effect of quality of life (QoL) on outcome, the physical health summary measure of the SF-36 was found to be independently related to outcome, whereas only a trend was found for the mental health summary measure (26). In the same paper, marital status was also shown to be relevant in the outcome of ALS; patients who lived alone had a significantly worse prognosis than patients who were married.
Even if you do not believe in the power of the mind to aid in health and healing, keeping a positive mental attitude has other benefits:
- The mood of others is influenced by our own.
- Life is more enjoyable when we are enjoying ourselves.
- People are drawn to and will strive to help and assist a positive person much more readily than a pessimist.
- Being negative will definitely NOT help to improve your situation, so you might as well try to be positive.