How to work a placebo.

Through the use of placebos, it is becoming clear that our mind has an even greater influence on our daily lives then we thought, influencing not only our perceptions, but also our well- being. The placebo, which is Latin for "to please", is usually thought of as a sugar-pill, that is given under the impression of being a medication thought to treat an ailment. The use of placebos has shown us that the mind has tremendous potential to induce physiological changes in our body based solely on our perceptions. For example, if we swallow a sugar pill thinking that it is Advil, we may actually physically feel fewer symptoms of headache or other pain, as a result of our mind's perception. A placebo is a substance or a procedure that activity has no effect on the condition being treated. When we use a placebo, to cure for an example, it is not the placebo that causes the effect. The consequence of  using it are very real physical responses created by our mind, and generating very real benefit or result. The placebo effect is today seen as an important part of the healing process. Although some ethical questions are asked on this subject, in my opinion it is a natural way for you to heal. Would you rather be filled with chemicals and and drugs, or heal with the power of your mind? A placebo offers, in most cases, the therapeutic effect, without the risk of negative side effects. I think it is more ethical then most things out there, and that healing the patient in any way, is healing. And many cases have been found where medicine did not help, but a placebo did. It has power. The ethics issue was probably created by drug companies, who would be more than happy to get rid of the idea of the placebo effect. However, the word is out and more and more incredible stories are being shared about the power to heal ourselves.  It’s all in what we believe.

Here is a summary of a placebo:

Our brain anticipates outcomes, and anticipation produces those outcomes. The placebo effect is basically a self-fulfilling prophecy, and it follows the patterns predicted, as if the brain was indeed, producing its own desired outcomes. Researchers have found the factors that we should play up on.
• Placebos follow the same dose-response curve as real medicines. Two pills give more relief than one, and a larger capsule is better than a smaller one.
• Placebo injections do more than placebo pills.
• Substances that actually treat one condition but are used as a placebo for another have a greater placebo effect that sugar pills.
• The greater the pain, the greater the placebo effect. It's as if the more relief we desire, the more we attain.
• You don't have to be sick for a placebo to work. Placebo stimulants, placebo tranquilizers, even placebo alcohol produce predictable effects in healthy subjects.

 Nowadays, a placebo is mostly used in medical research, placebos are given as control treatments along with legitimate substances to measure it's the drugs actual effectiveness.  Placebos are mostly used to replace painkiller or in depression treatments.

A placebo is very effective - if you truly believe.             

The Placebo Effect.

 A placebo is a simulated or otherwise ineffective treatment for a disease or other medical condition intended to deceive the recipient. Sometimes patients given a placebo treatment will have a perceived or actual improvement in a medical condition, a phenomenon commonly called the placebo effect

An article titled Placebo Effect: How it works explained an experiment done to test the strength of placebos. They gathered 300 subjects with headaches, and divided them into three groups of 100.  The first group was given no treatment, or explanation. The second group was told that they are testing a super drug, notably better then and faster as a pain reliever, while they were actually given aspirin with codeine, a proven old school pain reliever. The third group was told the same thing, but instead they received placebo sugar pills. After an hour, 20 people of the first group said that their headaches were gone. In the second group, 90 said that they are cured - they have never had a better medicine. In the last, "placebo" group, 55 people did not have headaches anymore. Taking into consideration that in the treatment free group - group one- , headache pain ceased in 20 percent of subjects after one hour regardless, the results show that 35 percent of the subjects in the experiment stated that the sugar pill was just as much a miracle drug as the painkiller the members of the second group received. A sugar pill has no physiological action that will cure a headache, but the headache-free subjects in the third group provide evidence to the contrary.  This "cure" in the absence of any truly therapeutic agent is the placebo effect, and it's more than a curiosity. It's a direct result of brain action.. The placebo effect is not a deception or self-delusion. The people whose headaches disappear after ingestion of the sugar pill are not lying, cheating, simple-minded, or insane. Their pain disappears--and not because they consciously wish it to. "The human brain anticipates outcomes, and anticipation produces those outcomes. The placebo effect is self-fulfilling prophecy, and it follows the patterns you'd predict if the brain were, indeed, producing its own desired outcomes".  The physical changes are real. The placebo effect is self-fulfilling prophecy.

The article reveals many interesting research findings, such as the fact that placebos follow the same dose-response curve as real medicines. Two pills give more relief than one, and a larger capsule is better than a smaller one. Or the fact that the greater the pain, the greater the placebo effect. It's as if the more relief we desire, the more we attain.The article also raised an interesting relation of the placebo effect to the topic of overall perception. "The placebo effect is not a single phenomenon, but the result of the complex interplay of anatomical, biochemical, and psychological factors. The same can be said for all our perceptions, I suspect. We see, hear, taste, touch, and smell pretty much what we expect to."It is agreeable that this effect, just like our perception, is a trickery, and creates the world of our reality. What you truly believe in, is the truth for you.