Robert F. Kennedy Jr, commented on the release of a new damning fluoride toxicity report:
“These findings fly in the face of the empty, unscientific claims U.S. health officials have propagated for years;
namely that water fluoridation is safe and beneficial. It’s past time to eliminate this neurotoxin from our water supply, “This is the FIRST time any big-name politician has said anything remotely negative about fluoride.
New Study Finds Beliefs About Drugs Affect the Brain and Behavior
Results from a new study have illustrated the power of our beliefs and their effect on us.
The study found—for the first time—that people’s beliefs about medications can affect their behavior and how their brains respond.
The researchers say the effects they observed are similar to the dose-dependent effect of medications—where the effects of a medication change when the dosage is changed.
The results have far-reaching implications for the understanding and treatment of mental disorders.
Findings from the study could help scientists understand how a person’s beliefs affect mechanisms in the brain and the role they may play in addiction. They could also help scientists better understand the way treatments using medications as well as other types of therapies could be enhanced by leveraging the power of our beliefs.
“Beliefs can have a powerful influence on our behavior, yet their effects are considered imprecise and rarely examined by quantitative neuroscience methods,” Xiaosi Gu, senior author of the study, said in a press release.
“We set out to investigate if human beliefs can modulate brain activities in a dose-dependent manner similar to what drugs do, and found a high level of precision in how beliefs can influence the human brain. This finding could be crucial for advancing our knowledge about the role of beliefs in addiction as well as a broad range of disorders and their treatments.”
To further examine this relationship, nicotine-dependent study subjects were told an electronic cigarette they were given had either low, moderate, or high levels of nicotine when, in fact, the level of nicotine remained the same. After vaping, the participants had brain imaging via fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) while performing a task known to stimulate parts of the brain activated by nicotine.
The scans showed that the thalamus—which binds to nicotine in the brain—responded in a dose-dependent manner that aligned with the study participant’s beliefs about the nicotine’s strength.
Until now, this effect was thought to only apply to medications.
Computational Psychiatry
Ms. Gu is one of the world’s leading researchers in a new field known as computational psychiatry.
Applications in Clinical Practice
Ms. Gu addresses another way that her team’s findings could be applied in clinical practice.
“The finding that human beliefs about drugs play such a pivotal role suggests that we could potentially enhance patients’ responses to pharmacological treatments by leveraging these beliefs,” she says.
Ms. Gu and her research team have uncovered a vital piece of the puzzle in regard to how our subjective beliefs affect the brain and behavior. Their insights could lead to a greater understanding of how mental health disorders develop and the role a patient’s beliefs may play in their treatment.
“We’re interested in testing the effects of beliefs on drugs beyond nicotine to include addictive substances like cannabis and alcohol, and therapeutic agents like antidepressants and psychedelics. It would be fascinating to examine, for example, how the potency of a drug might impact the effect of drug-related beliefs on the brain and behavior, and how long-lasting the impact of those beliefs might be. Our findings could potentially revolutionize how we view drugs and therapy in a much broader context of health.”
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