Adding Life to Years

by Lawrence J. Weiss, Ph.D.

Better days lie ahead, believe it

More than investing in renewable energy, more than extending health insurance to those who don't have it, more than ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq in a responsible manner, the first job for our new president should be to restore optimism. We need to believe that we can do whatever we set our minds to. Because it's true, we can.

I've been reading about some interesting research lately on the placebo effect. It's interesting and it's also timely, for reasons I'll explain shortly.

In one of the studies, scientists at the University of Michigan injected the jaws of healthy young men with salt water to cause painful pressure. PET scans were then used to measure the reaction in their brains.

At one point the men were told they were receiving a pain reliever, but it was actually a placebo or fake medicine. Nonetheless, their brains immediately released more endorphins, chemicals that act as natural painkillers by blocking the transmission of pain signals. Despite not actually receiving any painkilling medicine, the men with aching jaws reported feeling less pain.

In a separate study a few years ago, Italian scientists hooked pain patients up to a computerized morphine-injection machine. Sometimes the computer administered a dose of morphine without the patient knowing it. Sometimes a nurse pretended to give the morphine while the machine was administering a dose of the painkiller. The morphine turned out to be 50 percent more effective when patients knew it was coming.

I bring up these studies because we find ourselves in a time of great national anxiety right now. Consumer confidence suffered its steepest monthly drop on record in October, according to a Reuters/University of Michigan Survey. A Washington-Post-ABC News poll released in mid-October found that less than half of Americans believed they will have enough money to last through retirement, and twothirds feared for their family's economic future. Nearly nine in 10 indicated they were worried about the direction of the economy over the next few years.

According to the AARP, at least 30 percent of people are postponing retirement plans because of the economic downturn. Banks report that elderly customers, especially those who lived through the Great Depression, are asking to withdraw money from their accounts. In perhaps the strongest evidence of dwindling confidence in the financial system, SentrySafe, the nation's largest safe manufacturer, reported a sales increase of almost 50 percent in the three weeks of highest market turmoil in early fall.

With all this frightful economic news, it's natural for people to worry about the future and even worry themselves sick. But if the research cited above is correct, it's just as natural for us to feel better if we can make ourselves believe that better times lie ahead.