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If you're sick, it doesn't hurt to believe that you're getting better - in fact, it may actually help. And when it comes to many alternative medicines, such as herbal remedies and acupuncture, belief alone may be the reason that you feel a sense of comfort and healing.
The Economist has an overview of the truth behind alternative medicine and the power of the placebo effect. A placebo is basically a sham medical treatment that isn't supposed to have any effect on health. But if a doctor tells you that a particular pill is going to make you feel happier, it may not matter if the pill is made of flour; your belief in it alone may heighten your emotions.
Harvard professor Irving Kirsch says the placebo effect works best on conditions that are emotional and subjective. A recent study, reported by WebMD, suggested that the placebo effect is at work in many headache treatments. But it can also change your perception of pain as well as your heartbeat, blood pressure, digestion and other factors that you don't control, according to Karin Meissner of Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany.
And it appears that more involved fake procedures are more convincing than simple ones in healing your body and mind. Studies have found that people respond better to phony injections than pills, and a convincing pretend surgery is even better. Surprisingly, you might even see improvement from a placebo even if your doctor tells you that it's not real medicine, a 2010 study in PLoS ONE found.
Rigorous analyses of scientific studies have shown that much of what is known as alternative medicine is bunk, with a few exceptions such as St. John's wort for mild depression (Here's the low-down on this and other remedies for depression from Health.com). But the simple belief in a remedy carries a lot of weight, according to experts. And when you go to a practitioner of alternative medicine, you're likely to get someone who offers you more face time and greater sense of reassurance about a therapy than a regular doctor. The positive relationship you form with him or her may have a placebo effect in itself.
Double take: "placebo effect works best on conditions that are emotional and subjective"… Duh!
Cancer: very emotional and very objectively killing patients.
I'd rather have a doctor around than believe that breast cancer goes away on its own.
@facts: i disagree with your thinking. we go along with our lives and poof one day end up feeling sick and cant move out of bed. did we think ourselves into sickness, subconciously? way in the back of our heads did we will ourselves to have heart disease and cancer? and those little 18 month old babies with cancer and tumors fighting for thier lives, did THEY will themselves sick? nah, aint like dat.
Huh?
Funny thing is it is fact that many perscription drugs are created from nature and plants and then the smart scientists alter them hoping to make them work even better than they already do. Read about essiac tea – Burdock Root, Sheep Sorrel, Slippery Elm and Turkish Rhubarb. Some of these herbs are used in Chemo. Not to mention pot, all of it's known medical benefits as a pain killer and treatment for cataract…But now scientists have managed to put it in pill form. Most, if not all pharma drugs start with herbs and built from there.
i have yet to hear of anyone that got healed from a catholic wafer. check out : Psychoneuroimmunology
Interesting that NOW we canNOT afford healthcare, there is a simple way to heal ourselves from simple maladies : ) And the Doctors are the ones telling us about it? I guess theyve made enough money that they can relax and take some time off from all of us hypochondriacs and unnecessary medicines and medical blood tests and procedures.
Jugular, my "maker" was my Dad, who is dead. No invisible guy in the sky made me. No stork brought me here. No imaginary friend will judge me after I die. I will simply decompose. REALITY! I know it' is hard to swallow, but try doing so. It may make your life more pleasurable..
Than the above mentioned theory should work just the opposite as well. If you don't believe that alternative medicines work, than they probably won't.
Alternative medicine works. I speak from my recent personal experience. I have advanced periodontal condition and most of my teeth were loose and dentists suggestion was extraction and implants. This was about a month ago. I refused to go that way and started searching for alternative medicine. After much research, found out turmeric powder mixed with mustard oil when applied on the gums can work effectively in restoring gums. Been doing that deligently and changed my diet with it. After just one month, i am seeing amazing difference. The sore and painfully receded gums is now looking pink. The teeth are getting firmer. They still shake but it is markedly improved than before. I know it. A simple act like gargling used to earlier shake them in their sockets. Now, it is much firmer. A far road still ahead from recovery, but i am assured i will make it. U mean to say it is just placebo, which killed the germs and actually is regenerating the gum tissue? Had i followed the traditional route, i will be sitting now with a mouth full of implants.
Both sides have benefits to society and at the same time both sides have negatives associated with some of their practices.
There are more gullible people that believe in evolution than there are gullible people who believe that God created man in one day from the dust.
If you don't think you think yourself sick OR well, you had best think again.
Yes, believing is healing which can be termed as placebo effect. Mind is a potential healer in many psychosomatic disorders and emotional diseases. Placebo effect works at sometime at some conditions only which can not be generalized. By taking the advantage of placebo effect, this can not be generalized or attributed to any alternative medical systems or complementary medical systems. Many alternative systems works effectively on scientific principles where the chemical medicines of allopathy failed which is the truth in the world.
Just because you read about evolution does not make it a fact. It is all theory and theories can be proven wrong. Remember the big bang theory?? Read the latest about it and then go back in history and read what was written about it then.
Woofully??? Really?
All very true. I had massive blood infection resulting in total kidney failure. Docs said I would be on dialysis forever. Meditated every day to get my sweet little stem cells regenerating kidneys. In 6 short weeks they were function perfectly.
There is no such thing as alternative medicine. There is only treatment that works and treatment that does not work. The former encompasses all medicine, and the latter should not be called medicine.
And 10 years down the road, the meds your doc. put you on has turned your liver to dust and their is some lawyer on TV wanting you to join a class action lawsuit so he can get 40%.
If people knew the awesome power of their thinking, they would never think a negitive thought.
And the biggest placebo of all is religion. Instead of sugar pills the Catholic church like to give out those tasty wafers (aka the body of Christ).
Or, like believing you're not accountable to your maker, even when that's hooey.
Did you miss this article that is linked above?
Yes, we all know you are going to hell.
The difference between 'alternative' medicine and standard medicine is scientific evidence vs wishful thinking. Time after time after time, when properly tested, 'alternative' treatments simply FAIL TO PERFORM. Period. If you find an 'alternative' treatment that does demonstrably work, surprise, it becomes standard medicine. End of story.
How much does a patient have to pay for placebo pills? Based upon this article's rational it seems plausible that a placebo pill would be more effective if it were expensive. The patient might have the mindset that an inexpensive treatment can't possibly be as effective as an expensive treatment.
Ugh…. So there's only ONE herbal remedy that works. And this one herbal remedy is magically different than every other plant in existence and big corporate drugs don't come from plants they're just magic and the placebo thing only affects non-corporate herbs so it magically does not also inflate prescription drug efficacy numbers…. The stupidity of smart people is astounding.
so chiropractors, naturopathists, accupuncturists all work for free? No, they make plenty of money (some of them even drive mercedes!). Herbals and other 'natural' homeopathics are a multi-billion dollar a year industry that has been fighting FDA regulation for years to prevent evaluation of the claims they make.
"you will find thousands of people who swear by Alternative medicine" doesn't prove anything because woofully educated Americans believe it…remember May 21st? How many Americans still don't "beleive" in evolution? Do I believe Joe Q American that I see standing in line at WalMart or well educated trained scientiests? Hummm…
A shallow article. There is not a doubt in my mind that Mind Set is a key to healing the body. This mindset is central to many traditions.While I doubt that every item in a health food store lives up to its billing, the few that I have taken including MSM, have been very effective. As acupuncture has been utilized for thousands of years, and is considered mainstream in other countries, I find this critique just another push off of the billion dollar Alternative Healing Industry.
Kind of like believing you are going to heaven…………….makes you feel better even if it is hooey.
Of course the AMA and the Medical Community of Drs are going to say that Alternative Medicine is a sham-LOL. Can you blame them when their Mercedes-Benz lifestyles might be threatened?