I’ve heard, in the context of cancer battles for example, that there were some studies showing that patients who had a strong mental will to make it had somewhat better prognoses. Is this actually legit in anyway, and if so, is there any speculative explanation for how this may play a role?
It makes me wonder if it would have an impact on severe coronavirus cases too like we have going on today, or even many other diseases and critical conditions that land people in the hospital.
I received my diagnosis on December 28 and from that very moment, I did not have the fear of defeat from it so my out look has generally been very optimistic. I had a 2 pound, 13cm cancerous tumor removed from my body that was making me sick for months, and it was a long road from surgery and now through chemo, but I feel better than I did six months ago, getting stronger every day. I had to completely rebuild my body (still in process of doing that), and I spent the entire month of January in the hospital or in my home recovering. Since that first visit in the hospital, germs and isolation have been in the forefront of everything I do, so being cautious has become second nature. I am not going to allow my illness, my recovery, or the coronavirus to dictate my will to live or my outlook on life. I had to change my life course completely so any amount of normalcy is favor, and just glad to be able to see what the upcoming months have to offer.
That’s inspiring, DeanMachine, thanks for sharing. I wish you all the best in your recovery!
[Moderating]
Yes, it’s inspiring, but it’s not an answer to the OP’s question. This is General Questions, our forum for questions with a factual answer. The OP asked a factual question, with the hope of getting a factual answer. Let’s please get some factual information before we start drifting off topic.
It would be very hard to do a study, because you can’t separate the impact of “I want to survive, so my body fights harder” from “I have an internal sense that i still have vitality, so i want to survive”.
That being said, there are studies on the impact of social connections and “being responsible for stuff”. Years ago a read a study that showed that nursing home patients who had a house plant they cared for loved longer than those who didn’t. (Although, again, maybe healthier people are more likely to take on responsibilities like that.) And there for seen to be some correlation between social connections and longevity. (Again, could go both ways, at least to some extent.)
I don’t think it would be too problematic to give some nursing home patients houseplants and tell them to care for them, though.
There’s something called “confirmation bias,” by which you remember things that happened the way you expected, and forget the “misses.”
There’s also the fact that nearly everybody wants to beat cancer, and has a strong will to live. People who don’t usually do not seek treatment. So there’s no protracted “battle with cancer” to “win.” They’re usually very elderly, or people with other health problems, usually ones involving chronic pain, who feel “ready.”
Think about it. How likely is it that someone is going to interview a cancer survivor who is going to say “I really didn’t think I was going to make it. I’d said all my goodbyes. I have no idea what the hell happened.”
Honestly, it’s like watching TV. Outside of Amish communities, there are few people who don’t watch TV. Imagine interviewing 100 cancer survivors, asking every single one if they watched TV, and having 99 of them say yes, then suggesting that watching TV aids in surviving cancer.
This very old study on survival in patients with cancer concluded “the biology of the disease appears to predominate and to override the potential influence of life-style and psychosocial variables”.
The American Cancer Society has a page reviewing the effect (or lack of it) of things like attitude and personality on cancer survival. tl;dr (there is none)
I can’t find it, but am certain there’s also a (fairly high quality) study, an RCT, showing that people undergoing cancer therapy who made a concerted and ongoing attempt to focus their mind on their tumor in order to ‘remove it from the body’ (or some similar sentiment), fared no better than those who did not. I will keep looking.
Here’s a link to a review article co-authored by a researcher whose 2007 study found no significant value to ‘‘positive thinking’’ in cancer patients.
Beyond the paucity of quality evidence showing that a ‘‘fighting spirit’’ helps fight cancer, there’s the issue of putting pressure on those with cancer diagnoses to always remain upbeat, or suggesting that people who succumb to cancer did so because of negative thinking while those who were supposedly mentally stronger overcame their disease.
Basically, it’s bullshit.
I think that’s what the study did, but of course, not everyone accepts the plant.
Yeah, when a friend had cancer, I floated the idea that your internal sense of health might be predictive, and she misunderstood me to be suggesting that cancer patients had an obligation to remain upbeat to improve their odds, and she pointed out how oppressive that idea is.
I had the thought that you might have a sense of your own overall health based on talking with a pulmonologist who treated a lot of dying patients. He told me the patient almost always accepted that they were going to die before their family did.