Placebo effect. Faith can work miracles.

"People willingly believe what they want to believe" Guy Julius Caesar (Roman statesman, dictator, commander).

• Faith can work miracles.
• Faith-confidence of a person in the truth of something (for example, scientific, political, religious and other ideas).
• Faith is what gave birth to the placebo effect.

In general, as you may have guessed, my dear readers, today I will reveal this mysterious phenomenon (the effect is a placebo). So, let's find out what gave rise to it, who worked on these issues and whether there is any benefit from it.
So, everything in order:

The American doctor Henry Beecher first introduced the term «placebo effect» (from lat. placebo-getting better) into use in 1955, although this effect was seen in the 1700s, the real physiological features were studied only in the 1970s.
Thus, according to research conducted in the 1970s by a group of scientists led by Stanley Milgram (Professor at Stanford University): "for patients with anxiety disorders were most effective green tablets, less-red, less — yellow. On the contrary, in depression, more effective were tablets yellow, less-green, ineffective-red." Yet the researchers were not able to make any clear conclusion on the results of their work.

A lot of interesting things about "placebo" can be learned from the book of Dylan Ivan’s — researcher from the University of bath (UK) "Placebo. The mind takes over matter in modern medicine".

As you have already understood, the placebo effect is a very mysterious phenomenon from the field of psychology and physiology, but today it is widely known in society, although still poorly understood.

Therefore, the placebo effect is a phenomenon in which the human body is looking for ways to get rid of the disease on its own, without the use of effective drugs, but only using their simulators.

Important!

Recovery comes through faith in the effectiveness of the drug used.

Recently, the placebo effect has become widely practiced in medicine (especially in psychiatry), so, sometimes doctors, purposefully prescribe a placebo to a certain circle of patients (for example, hypochondriacs – people overly worried about their health) or people who are excitable, constantly worried about something. As a result, suffering from frequent insomnia. And here the most striking thing-is that in such cases, it is the drug "dummy" like nothing else, best affects the improvement of the patient (placebo acts on the body, even if the patient knows that it is a placebo), although it seems to be obvious that the positive effect of this method of treatment should be reduced. However, no! What a mystery.

However, the answer is still there, and it lies in a simple: here an important role is played by the authority of the doctor, also plays a decisive role and the appearance of the pill (its color and shape). In addition to taking drugs, such a positive effect can be the performance of certain exercises that do not give a direct, useful effect.

Keep in mind!

• The placebo effect is much stronger for children than for adults.
• Moreover, in both cases, it is possible addiction.
• The stronger the effect of placebo, the more expensive the medicine.
• The strength of the effect-depends on the place of residence (and a vivid example — the us residents (prone to hypochondria), for this reason in this country is so widely deployed advertising vaccination).
• Placebo affects different people in different ways (someone can even provoke an asthma attack, and someone, on the contrary, will ease the suffering).

Interesting facts about the placebo effect.

"The brain itself can make Paradise out of hell and hell out of Paradise" John Milton (English poet and thinker).

William Osler, one of the greatest doctors in the world, at the beginning of the century confidently stated that the success of a doctor of any specialization depends largely on his character and behavior, as well as on the patient's faith in the effectiveness of the drug and the omnipotence of the doctor.

Norman cousins in the bestseller "Anatomy of the disease from the patient's point of view" describes in detail (systematic) many examples of the effectiveness of the "placebo". He constantly emphasizes that the mental attitude and attitude of the patient to the disease has a huge impact on its course.

Incredible cases of healing

The power of metal spokes.

In 1801, the British doctor John Hagarth questioned the effectiveness of the extremely popular at the time metal spokes (they were made of a special alloy) and therefore endowed with a special magical power that can improve the whole body. Then John Hagart decides to hold a "session" recovery — the usual wooden sticks, while giving them for the most popular – miraculous. Moreover, what is most interesting: four of his five patients have significantly improved health.

Brain surgery.

There is another very interesting experiment on this topic: in one of the foreign medical clinics, organized such a test: the first group of people with Parkinson's disease had an operation to transplant special nerve cells into the brain, and the rest of the participants of the experiment were simply told that they also had a similar operation, although no surgical interventions with At the same time, there was a double "blind" control, that is, neither the patients nor the medical staff knew who actually had the new cells implanted. And after a year: in both groups, patients began to experience a tendency to recovery.

Anesthetic.

In 1944 (during the fighting for southern Italy), the American military doctor ran out of painkillers, and to somehow soothe the soldier's aching wound, he gave him ordinary water, issuing it for the required medicine, and surprisingly-the pain in the wounded subsided.

Can cure cancer.

The last example, no less striking in its power of faith: one man, at the age of 61, was diagnosed with cancer (cancer of the throat). After learning about his disease, the man in a short period of time lost 44 kg, he day by day became harder to breathe and swallow. The probability of saving a life was 5%. After much thought, doctors still decide to conduct a course of radiation therapy, under the guidance of Dr. Carl Simon, who taught his patient the technique of self – hypnosis-thereby setting it on a direct path of recovery. The task of the man was as follows: daily to tell himself that his cancer cells are removed from the body through the liver and kidneys. The result was amazing – just two months later the man regained his full weight, strength, and most importantly – the signs of cancer disappeared.

Nocebo - is the flip side.

The placebo also has a malicious enemy — it is called "nocebo" - causing only the deterioration of the patient's health.
There are many shocking examples (even death) of patients, only from the fact that he learned what side effects the prescribed drug carries.

In General, placebo and nocebo are two sides of the same coin, and which of them will appear in each case depends not only on the patient's expectations, but also in many ways, and on the competence (professionalism) of the doctor prescribing these drugs.

Purely my opinion: you can not blindly believe everything, but much can't be denied. We must try to act in every situation presented by life — wisely.