The Rabbit Effect and Individual Health

Like many of you, I have no doubt that those running this country want us dead.  They’ll start off with the low-hanging fruit—the ones easier to eliminate—and then move on to the rest of us.  They will start controlling access to other essential medications by reducing the supply and/or making them completely unaffordable.  For these two reasons alone we should be building as large a supply as possible of our own medications as well as doing everything we can to reduce our need for them.  We also need to learn what herbs can be used in place of conventional pharmaceuticals.

I’ve written previously about the placebo effect and how effective a placebo can be in managing pain.  I encourage you to read that article if you have not done it yet.  Unfortunately, many conditions need something more than pain management.  There are no placebos for insulin, epinephrine, or penicillin.  Many individuals will start stressing out when they can’t source essential medications.  Herbs may help fill in blanks.  So will care and compassion.

That care and compassion comprises part of the placebo effect, but it goes further than that.  A couple of years ago in a talk given by Gary L. Stevenson, I was reminded of some studies conducted on rabbits.  The results of these studies were published 40 years ago, and yet the findings are just as relevant today, maybe even more so in our troubling times.

The experiment conducted on New Zealand rabbits (not “rabbits from New Zealand” as mentioned in the talk—New Zealand is a specific breed of rabbit commonly used in scientific research; also, the rabbit depicted in the photograph associated with the talk at the link is not a New Zealand rabbit) was designed to study the effect of diet on cholesterol, heart rate, and blood pressure.  And all of the rabbits did develop some buildup of fatty deposits on their arteries, as was anticipated.  However, one group of these virtually identical rabbits who all had the same diet exhibited about 60% less buildup.  What happened?!?!

After some serious digging, it was found that the researcher in charge of this particular group of rabbits did more than just feed and water them.  She also cuddled, petted, and talked to them.  She didn’t just give them food.  She also gave them love.  (Makes me think I should be talking more to the veggies out in the garden.)

Of course, the experiment was repeated and extra controls were enacted to make sure mistakes hadn’t been made.  The results were eventually published in Science. 

Dr. Kelli Harding, who was not involved in the original study, concluded about the results: “Take a rabbit with an unhealthy lifestyle. Talk to it. Hold it. Give it affection. … The relationship made a difference. … Ultimately,” she concludes, “what affects our health in the most meaningful ways has as much to do with how we treat one another, how we live, and how we think about what it means to be human.”[i]

Hippocrates is credited with saying, “Let thy food be thy medicine, and thy medicine be thy food.”  Good food and good nutrition definitely help prevent much in the way of disease.  In a decaying society such as ours, where family relationships are often considered to be cut-and-paste, we would do well to remember that our relationships with others also dramatically affect our health. 

Care and compassion, the human touch and a kindly word, a listening ear, all affect human health in profound ways.  We may exhaust our supplies of some essential medications and be unable to replace them.  But we can always better demonstrate our love for our family members and friends.  For many individuals in a survival situation, family connections and love for one another really will be a matter of life and death.

Links to related posts:

Do the Diabetics Have to Die?

How to Acquire Antibiotics

The Placebo Effect 

Herbal Antibiotics

References:

Kelli Harding, The Rabbit Effect, 2019, 23-24.  

RM Nerem, et al., The social environment as a factor in diet-induced atherosclerosis, Science, Vol 208 No 4451, 27 June 1980,  https://science.sciencemag.org/content/208/4451/1475/tab-pdf (accessed 14 June 2021).

Gary L. Stevenson, “Hearts Knit Together,” General Conference, April 2021, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2021/04/15stevenson?lang=eng (accessed 14 June 2021).

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[i] Kelli Harding, The Rabbit Effect (2019), 23-24.

 06.16.21