Hey, Thoughty2 here.
The placebo effect is one of the least understood phenomenon known to man.
In some cases this purely psychological effect has the power to completely heal people.
But how does it work?
The word Placebo comes from the latin "I will please".
There have been endless studies proving that the placebo effect works, in some clinical
trials the placebo pills actually outperformed the genuine medication.
So how does it work?
Well when we get ill or hurt ourselves, our body puts up defences against the real problem,
for example if we catch the flu our temperature rises.
But it's not the flu virus that causes this, our body increases its internal temperature
to fight off the bacteria because it knows bacteria can't survive in a hot environment.
The placebo effect breaks down these defences.
Because our own body creates the symptoms, it also has the power to get rid of them.
So when we're given a sugar pill and told it will cure our illness, an authority figure,
in this case a doctor, has given our brain permission to stop its defences.
So our symptoms get better, also, when we're told we've been given a pill that will cure
us our brain releases endorphins because it's good news, and because endorphins are natural
pain killers our symptoms improve.
However the placebo effect doesn't help fight the underlying virus itself, it only helps
nullify the experiences of the illness.
Despite this the placebo effect has been able to produce some amazing physical results in
clinical trials, for example it has made warts completely disappear and even made bald men
who thought they were being given hair regrowth serum, regrow their hair, all with the power
of the mind.
But the placebo effect has an evil twin, called the nocebo effect.
The nocebo effect is when people are given a harmless substance but succumb to harmful
effects.
When patients in double-blinded clinical trials are given sugar pills and warned of the side
effects they may experience if they're given the real drug.
Approximately 25% experience severe side effects, despite the fact they're not actually taking
the medication.
Another, more disturbing study showed in a group of patients about to undergo life threatening
surgery, those who had convinced themselves they were going to die usually did.
Whereas patients who had a more optimistic outlook on their surgery, usually survived.
There exists a phenomena associated with the nocebo effect called "voodoo death".
This is when a person is cursed and told they will die, and then dies.
It sounds unbelievable however there have been documented cases where patients in hospital
who are believed to be terminally ill and mistakenly told they have X amount of time
to live, have then died within their given time frame.
However, after death an autopsy could find no physiological explanation for their early
demise.
A lot of real medication relies heavily on the placebo effect to provide it's full benefits,
this is especially true with anti-depressants.
Numerous studies have shown that placebos produce the exact same results as real anti-depressants,
without any of the side effects.
Whilst this is good news for sufferers, these findings have been heavily downplayed by major
pharmaceutical companies who would lose out on billions of dollars if anti-depressants
became less popular.
Here's another fun fact, you can actually placebo yourself into inebriation, researchers
found that people who were told they had been drinking vodka, but were really given tonic
water and lime, had impaired judgement and performed much worse on basic IQ tests.
When it comes to placebo pills the properties of the drug itself can greatly affect it's
performance.
Researchers have found that yellow placebo pills are the most effective at treating depression,
whilst red pills cause the patient to be more alert and awake.
Green pills ease anxiety and white pills soothe stomach pains.
They also found the more placebo pills the patient takes the more effective they are.
Also pills that have a brand name printed on them work better than those that are blank.
Studies have also shown that when it comes to over the counter medications such as paracetamol,
studies have shown that a box of $3 medication is more effective than a $0.40 box of medication,
despite both products having the exact same active ingredients.
This reveals that the placebo effect is more powerful if the perceived value of the medication
is higher.
But by far the biggest mystery about the placebo effect is that it works even when you know
you're taking a placebo.
In clinical trials where patients are administered a placebo then they are eventually told that
they have merely been taking a sugar pill.
The positive effects of the placebo remain, with absolutely no diminishment in effectiveness.
In the future this means doctors could be prescribing sugar pills to patients, when
they know full well it's a sugar pill.
The placebo effect is powerful and it shows no signs of stopping.
In fact it's actually getting stronger.
The placebo effect was first discovered in the 1700s.
Weirdly, it seems the more tests that medical professionals conduct, the more powerful the
placebo effect becomes over the years.
It is widely thought this is because of our growing belief in medicine.
As medical technology improves, mortality rate decreases and so our faith in the medical
system increase, which subsequently increases the power of the placebo effect.