Harvard’s Startling Discovery: Perceived Time Affects Healing Rate

TOPICS:  Harvard UniversityImmunologyInflammationPopularPsychology

By Harvard University January 14, 2024

Time Wound Healing Art Concept

Harvard psychologists show that the way we perceive time affects the speed
of physical wound healing. Using experiments where participants experienced
time at different rates, the study found that wounds healed faster when
more time was perceived to have passed, challenging traditional views on
the psychological influences on physical health. Credit: SciTechDaily.com

A Harvard study demonstrates that perceived time can accelerate or slow
down physical healing, suggesting a strong mind-body connection in health.

Perceived time has a significant impact on the actual time it takes to heal
physical wounds, according to new research by Harvard psychologists Peter
Aungle and Ellen Langer.

Their study, published last month in Nature Scientific Reports, challenges
conventional beliefs about psychological influences on physical health. The
findings suggest a broader range of psychological influences than is
currently appreciated.

Study Methodology and Surprising Findings

To complete their study, the authors used a standardized procedure to
mildly wound volunteer subjects. Perceived time was then manipulated in the
lab, with each study participant completing three experimental conditions:
Slow Time (0.5x real-time), Normal Time (1x real-time), and Fast Time (2x
real-time).

Wounds were documented as healing faster when participants believed more
time had passed. Likewise, the healing process proved slower when less time
was perceived to have gone by. Actual time elapsed was the same under all
three conditions.

Implications and Future Research

Further research is underway to better understand the underlying mechanisms
and broader implications of these findings. Meanwhile, the study makes a
compelling case for more fully incorporating the idea of mind-body “unity”
into subsequent inquiries on mind-body health effects. In particular,
researchers are urged to consider a broader range of psychological
influences on physical health.

Psychological influences on physical health are typically understood in
terms of influences on emotion (e.g., stress, inflammation, and immune
function) and behavior (e.g., beliefs that promote healthy actions). This
research suggests abstract beliefs about how our bodies work also directly
shape physical health.

Reference: “Physical healing as a function of perceived time” by Peter
Aungle, and Ellen Langer, 17 December 2023, Scientific Reports.

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-50009-3

KR     Rangarajanji hereafter pl copy article and send; nowadays every one
, evry site wants money as subscription in dollars. If you are getting it
instead of the link pl send the whole article as I cannot subscribe to
everyone. Also many might not tell you that they did not read it also  Your
effort shall not go to waste. Thank u KR IRS 5824

2     If possible, can you get the whole article of research? I refuse to
believe that it would take time to heal in 4 days, 2 days and in a
day where time consumed by the wound is the same. Einstein theory of clock
is different viz heights and space clock ticks faster or slower. But here
the ested people's efficacy of wounds and the power of healing according to
their age is unknown. Of course we heal faster if the patient is
cooperative and happy but here all the wounds healing time is well
predicted as so many days; and getting cured in a day or 2 days or 4days ,
calls for more details. Even if the patient had the placebo effect, yet the
time to be taken for healing is constant. And by changing the clock making
them believe and normal tome of 40days do become 20 days is hard to digest.
Psychological remorse getting cured I may accept as it is the days so fast
gone , forces them to concentrate on others; but wound healing is......KR
IRS 5824







On Sun, 4 Aug 2024 at 21:00, Rangarajan T.N.C. <[email protected]>
wrote:

>
> https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/the-way-we-perceive-time-may-affect-the-pace-of-our-healing-5692316?
>
>
>
>
> <https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/the-way-we-perceive-time-may-affect-the-pace-of-our-healing-5692316?>
>
>
> <https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/the-way-we-perceive-time-may-affect-the-pace-of-our-healing-5692316?utm_source=brightnoe&src_src=brightnoe&utm_campaign=bright-2024-08-04&src_cmp=bright-2024-08-04&utm_medium=email&est=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZ%2FclfhYVm5GYuP4It3ZRK617w0wBaSoB2NuhbW0jIwzFnZ65ld0hTLU%3D>
>

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