Years ago I began getting chest pains when I went out walking in winter, followed by left-arm pains - which naturally led to me to believe I may have a heart problem, as there was a history of early male deaths in one side of our family from undiagnosed heart weakness. This persisted for about a month, whereupon I booked myself in at the hospital for a battery of tests, including a nightmare treadmill, which steadily inclined as the session went on. Despite feeling shocking by the end of the tests, they concluded that my heart was fine, and that the main problem was that I was starting off too fast in the cold, and not giving my body chance to warm up, which led to my lungs not being able to deliver enough oxygen for the speed I was doing, creating the chest and arm pain - it felt like a really weird acid indigestion, but in the wrong place.
They suggested I just start walking more slowly, and gradually speed up. But the doctor also said that he thought many of my symptoms would just clear up more or less immediately. When I asked why, he said: "Because you're getting stressed about having a heart attack and pumping more cortisone out, making it feel worse. Now you know your heart is fine, you won't be as stressed, and it should stop." And he was right - it did.
I think sometimes the placebo effect - or perhaps better described as 'a greater holistic awareness of the overall condition, due to a change in circumstances' can help sort out some physical ailments, if it's not permanent damage, but misalignment, stress, strain or bad posture. Both physios I've seen over the last few years with a minor slipped disc complaint have recommended that I keep doing caving as much as I can, as they couldn't think of a better way of combining all the stretching exercises needed, and in an enjoyable situation. Certainly not a gym.
