Impaired metabolism function can result in obesity and increased susceptibility to disease. Although traditional medical treatments exist for these conditions, positive thinking can supplement these efforts. In recent years medical evidence that positive thinking can affect biological health has continued to accumulate. Positive thinking is a skill that can be developed with practice.
Defintion of Positive Thinking
According to Dr. Charlene Proctor, positive thinking is "a discipline that trains the human mind to change a perceived reality by repeatedly making positive mental statements." In addition to the use of verbal statements, advanced positive thinking makes use of vivid mental imagery. "Positive," in this context, means a constructive response to realities rather than blind optimism.
Mechanism
The exact mechanism by which psychological techniques influence biology is still not well understood. Suzanne Segerstrom, psychology professor at the University of Kentucky, studied a group of 90 law students during their first year of law school. Before studies began, each student was classified as either an optimist or a pessimist. She found that by mid-semester, the optimist has higher levels of helper T-cells, which help defend against viral infection and cancer. They also exhibited higher "natural killer cell cytotoxicity," meaning that their T-cells were more lethal against cancer cells. Nevertheless, Segerstrom also found that optimistic students whose lofty expectations proved unjustified by subsequent events actually showed impaired immune response--supporting the idea that positive thinking must be realistic as well as optimistic.
Psychological Benefits
In addition to the biological benefits of improved immune function, positive thinking also offers a number of psychological benefits that can improve overall health, according to the Mayo Clinic. These benefits include reduced risk of depression, lower stress and better coping skills. These benefits can in turn lead to secondary benefits such as increased energy and motivation.
Sport Psychology
Those who wish to move from disease, past ordinary health and on to high performance can take advantage of a relatively new discipline in mainstream psychology--sport and exercise psychology, often known simply as sport psychology. Sport psychology is concerned with the use of time management, anxiety control, confidence, concentration, communication, goal setting, team dynamics, internal dialogue and creative visualization, according to the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. Although much of sport psychology is centered around competitive athletics, individual exercisers may also take advantage of its principles to improve exercise motivation and performance.
Skepticism
Some observers believe that the mind-body connection upon which positive thinking relies has been exaggerated. Dr. David Spiegel at Stanford University School of Medicine, for example, conducted a study that indicated that positive thinking did not increase the survival rates of women with metastatic breast cancer. Likewise, James C. Coyne, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, concluded after research that positive thinking has no effect on cancer survival rates.
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