The Placebo Effect

 The Placebo Treatment

One of the most common theories is that the placebo effect is due to a person's expectations

Placebo
A simulated or otherwise medically ineffectual treatment for a disease or other medical condition intended to deceive the recipient.

Sometimes a person can have a response to a placebo. The response can be positive or negative. For instance, the person's symptoms may improve. Or the person may have what appears to be side effects from the treatment. These responses are known as the "placebo effect."

There are some conditions in which a placebo can produce results even when people know they are taking a placebo. Studies show that placebos can have an effect on conditions such as:
-Depression
-Pain
-Sleep disorders
-Irritable bowel syndrome
-Menopause

If a person expects a pill to do something, then it's possible that the body's own chemistry can cause effects similar to what a medication might have caused. Experts also say that there is a relationship between how strongly a person expects to have results and whether or not results occur. The stronger the feeling, the more likely it is that a person will experience positive effects. There may be a profound effect due to the interaction between a patient and health care provider.

On the show Fear and Faith back in 2012, Derren Brown made up a fake drug and used every skill he had to convince a group of people it was a cure for their fears, phobias, addictions and insecurities.
What the group didn't know was that the drug he called "Rumyodin" (actually an anagram for "your mind") was nothing more than a sugar pill, but the fact he layered so many psychological placebo tricks on top of each other in one experiment, he was able to get some remarkable results.

For another example lets say 2 people have a headache and person one takes a Tylenol and person two takes a sugar pill and both report feeling better. The difference is that person two was given an empty pill and believed they were given medication to treat their headache. The headache was cured because they believed that it would be. This happens often and many studies have shown the placebo effect is real and effective.

The power of perception and the ability that a person has to change their biology would allow for more questions, research, and other possibilities and potentials for humans.To find out more about future studies of the Placebo effect review the links below.

I hope you learn something new today,

Lala

Credits: 

http://www.thoughtpursuits.com/placebo-effect-thoughts-beliefs-can-transform-biology/# 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3634434/Knee-operations-no-better-painkillers-says-leading-surgeon-keyhole-surgery-mind.html 
http://www.thoughtpursuits.com/placebo-effect-thoughts-beliefs-can-transform-biology/