[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/fractures-and-healing\/mind-muscle-using-brain-help-bones\/#Article","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/fractures-and-healing\/mind-muscle-using-brain-help-bones\/","headline":"Mind over muscle \u2014 how using your brain could help your bones","name":"Mind over muscle \u2014 how using your brain could help your bones","description":"Print PDF eBook Facebook Twitter Gmail LinkedIn Pinterest Perhaps you\u2019ve heard of the \u201cplacebo effect\u201d in clinical trials \u2014 that strange situation when some people who don’t receive a beneficial intervention see a benefit to their health anyway, for no obvious reason. By way of explanation, most clinical researchers think that when participants believe\u00a0they will […]","datePublished":"2017-11-27","dateModified":"2019-01-22","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/author\/brownbetterbonesgmail-com\/#Person","name":"Dr. Susan E. Brown, PhD","url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/author\/brownbetterbonesgmail-com\/","identifier":72,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8e08d87bd45250c6616e1752933a6576aba077f335d97ee337a0cde5e435cbd3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8e08d87bd45250c6616e1752933a6576aba077f335d97ee337a0cde5e435cbd3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Center for Better Bones","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Better-Bones-AMP.png","url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Better-Bones-AMP.png","width":150,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Mind-Body-Bone-Connection.png","url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Mind-Body-Bone-Connection.png","height":512,"width":1024},"url":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/fractures-and-healing\/mind-muscle-using-brain-help-bones\/","about":["Fractures & Healing"],"wordCount":483,"keywords":["mind-body","fracture healing"],"articleBody":" Print PDF eBook\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFacebook\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTwitter\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGmail\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLinkedIn\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPinterest\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPerhaps you\u2019ve heard of the \u201cplacebo effect\u201d in clinical trials \u2014 that strange situation when some people who don’t receive a beneficial intervention see a benefit to their health anyway, for no obvious reason. By way of explanation, most clinical researchers think that when participants believe\u00a0they will improve because of the \u201ctreatment,\u201d\u00a0their body takes its cue from the mind and responds as if a therapeutic agent is actually being used.If only we could capture this seemingly magical ability of the mind to direct the body — what could it do for our own ability to heal?Table of ContentsToggle     2 Minutes ReadMental imagery makes a differenceA mind-body-bone connection?Mental imagery makes a differenceIn fact, a few years ago, some researchers showed that we can capture this ability (Clark et al. 2014). They induced muscle weakness in 29 adult volunteers \u2014 healthy people who had more or less similar muscle strength at baseline \u2014 by immobilizing the hand and wrist of the subjects\u2019 non-dominant arm using a rigid cast (15 other volunteers had nothing done to their arm and served as controls). They trained 14 members of the group with immobilized wrists in a mental imagery program in which they were told to imagine their immobilized hand and wrist was doing specific movements, such as flexing and pushing, without actually activating the muscles. An electromyogram was used to make sure they didn\u2019t actually flex their muscles during the mental imagery sessions. The remaining 15 people whose arms were immobilized were not given mental imagery training.What they found was startling: In the participants who underwent mental imagery training, the loss of muscle strength associated with immobilization was half that of those who didn\u2019t get training. They also concluded that lack of neurological activity, rather than lack of muscle activity, accounted for almost a one-third of the strength decrease in the immobilized arm. In other words, simply directing the brain\u2019s attention to the nervous system in a specific part of the body provides sufficient stimulus to the musculoskeletal system to make an important difference.A mind-body-bone connection?I\u2019ve noted before that bone strength depends on muscle strength, and most of us know that muscle strength is a “use it or lose it” proposition. This study shows how the power of the mind can be brought to bear on muscle strength \u2014 and though it didn\u2019t look at bone specifically, if you\u2019re supporting muscle, you\u2019re also supporting bone. I can\u2019t help but wonder whether a study that also looked at the effects on participants\u2019 bone mass might not show a similar improvement in bones! I bet you dollars to donuts it would.Better bones affirmationsReferenceClark BC, Mahato NK, Nakazawa M, Law TD, Thomas JS. The power of the mind: the cortex as a critical determinant of muscle mass. J Neurophysiol. 2014;112(12):3219\u20133226."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Fractures And Healing","item":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/fractures-and-healing\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mind over muscle \u2014 how using your brain could help your bones","item":"https:\/\/betterbones.com\/fractures-and-healing\/mind-muscle-using-brain-help-bones\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]