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Placebo Effect
The placebo
effect
is used to describe an improvement in health - when something
that
has no active therapeutic effect (e.g. a sugar pill resembling a drug)
- still produces an effect due to the recipient's
expectations/belief/faith. It is not the same as spontaneous remission
or fluctuation of symptoms throughout a disease.
In research/science/medicine, the placebo effect has a negative
connotation. It is regarded as something fake or empty and is the
explanation for all sorts of pseudo-science working. It is associated
with snake
oil, with quackery and other fraudulent or delusional health
scams. The
NHS
warns us that using these may mean that we then miss out on more
effective treatments.
In this
way, CAM
(Complementary and Alternative Medicine) is dismissed as merely placebo
effect.
However, you cannot separate a person's beliefs from a health
treatment.
Instead of denigrating the placebo effect, why not utilise it?
Consider these quotes:-
- 'Between
one and two-thirds of all healing is
down to the placebo effect,’ rather than therapies, drugs or
surgery, according
to renowned author and stem cell biologist Bruce Lipton: ‘The
placebo is just a
sugar-pill – the patient is healed by the power of positive
thinking; the
belief they’ll get better.’ (Kindred
Spirit, posted 15 March 2016,
accessed 19 March 2016)
- We
know that 18 to 80% of the time, patients
taking sugar pills... get better because they believe
they're getting the real treatment. In other words, if you believe some
herb,
tea, tonic, vitamin, or nutritional supplement holds the key to your
cure, by
all means, take it. (Lissa
Rankin, MD, posted 2013, accessed 8
December 2013)
- In
some way we have to
convince the patient that we are doing something... It is
the trust, the belief, and the ability of the patient who is actually
being
healed, that matters most. (Lilla Bek, How to be a Healer
and What to Avoid (Part Two), track #3, 0m0s; excerpt)
- Your
faith has made you well. (Jesus
Christ in
many places in the New Testament Bible: Matthew 9:22 and Mark 5:34 to a
diseased woman, Luke 17:19 to 10 lepers, Luke 18:42 to a blind beggar,
Matthew 8:13, Matthew 15:28, Luke 7:50, Mark 10:52)
Although a placebo is often
given by deception, it is in fact active in any relationship,
health-related or otherwise.
The lesson is
surely NOT that the placebo is something that is to be mocked or
ignored.
The simple answer is that this powerful effect needs to be harnessed.
The truth is that the 'fake' placebo effect is often more real than the
treatment or drug.
We are harnessing the power of love.
Health systems need to invest in this care and love far more than in
technology, chatbots
or drugs. They need to become patient-centred.
We need to spearhead the power of the therapeutic relationship. The
ability to create positivity in others is perhaps the most valuable
attribute of any doctor, nurse, healer, counsellor, leader. It is more
useful than intelligence or knowledge. It is something which does not
require years of specialised training. It is an instinctive human trait
that is totally undervalued in our society. People need to be employed
on their ability to elicit a placebo effect!
It is the power of Love.
The movie Patch
Adams has this on this crucial need for a
compassionate relationship between healer and patient:
Death
is not the enemy, gentlemen. If we are
going to fight a disease, let us fight one of the most terrible
diseases of all
- indifference. Now, I've sat in your schools and heard people lecture
on
transference and professional distance. Transference is inevitable,
sir. Every
human being has an impact on another. Why don't we want that in a
patient-doctor relationship? That's why I've listened to your teachings
and I
believe they're wrong. A doctor's mission should be not to just prevent
death but
also to improve the quality of life. That's why you treat a disease -
you win,
you lose. You treat a person, I guarantee you - you win - no matter
what the
outcome. (Patch Adams,
1h38m21s)
Placebo Effect in Society
Society needs to
champion the placebo effect, because otherwise, as Bruce
Lipton implies, the placebo is concussed and the nocebo
thrives. The
nocebo effect is similar to the placebo effect, but is a change for the
worse. The nocebo effect in society is when we feel powerless,
especially in the face of the onslaught of daily negative news.
So, we need the good news. We need to actively be the good news.
We
need to create a powerful Culture
of Love.
Placebo Effect in Spirituality
The same phenomenon is in action with spiritual or religious matters,
whether in relation to equipment or to gurus.
Consider:
- Many
people wear talismans (a medallion, a
cross, a symbol) convinced that they will be aided and protected! Well,
no,
owning a talisman, however powerful, is not enough to ensure the help
and
protection of entities from the invisible realm. You can only count on
the
power of a talisman if you work spiritually and physically in harmony
with what
it represents, with what it contains in terms of powers and virtues. It
is like
a creature who needs to be given the food suited to it, and your
emanations are
this food. If it is imbued with purity, you have to live a pure life;
if it is
imbued with light, you have to nurture the light in you; if it is
imbued with
strength, you must work to overcome your weaknesses, and so on. No
cross, no
medallion, no symbol can protect you, even if it has been blessed,
unless you also
wear it within you in the form of divine qualities and virtues. (O.M.
Aïvanhov)
- A
spiritual master is a
being who possesses great psychic powers, but these powers do not allow
him to
act at all times, in every location, under any circumstances, and with
just
anyone. A verse of the Gospels says that, when passing through
Nazareth,
Jesus did not perform many miracles because of the scepticism of its
inhabitants. So, even though he possessed great powers, he did not
reveal them
before people who were not open or trusting. And to the man who
requested
healing for himself or for his child, he replied, ‘According
to your faith, may
it be to you’, or, ‘Your faith has made you
well’. Of course, those who are
ignorant will say that Jesus was self-centred and vain, and this is why
he
agreed to help only those who had blind faith in him. No, the true
explanation
is that faith and doubt can be compared to chemical compounds: faith is
made of
subtle elements which favour fulfilment, and doubt is made of elements
that
oppose it. (O.M. Aïvanhov)
- And
he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. (Matthew
13:58 in the New Testament Bible - Matthew is talking about Jesus Christ)
Resources
- Placebo Effect Quotes (PWP).
- Placebo Effect & CAM (PWP) [CAM = Complementary & Alternative Medicine].
- It is unscientific to pour wholesale scorn on complementary medicine (Madeleine Bunting, The Guardian, 2008).
- Don't
Be Fooled! How To Be Your Own Placebo (Deepak Chopra, MD,
Oprah.com, 2010).
- The
Placebo Effect: How to Use Your Mind-Body Connection for Healing
(Deepak
Chopra, MD, Oprah.com, 2010).
- The
Power of the Placebo: How Your Mind Can Treat - and Prevent - Disease
(Lissa Rankin, MD, Oprah.com, 2013) [The science behind the body's surprising ability to heal itself].
- You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter (Dr Joe Dispenza, 2014) [Book. Your mind is incredibly important to everything you do. The body experiences what the mind believes. Watch here.].
- Why are
placebos getting more effective? (BBC, 2015).
- Nocebo
Unmasked (Nick Parkins, Kindred Spirit #142, 2016) [Sorry, this hyperlink is broken, but it has been reproduced here].
- Healing in a Hospital (Sandy Edwards, 2017; also see here, here) [One research finding was that NOT all healing is placebo, as animals and plants respond].
- The
power of the placebo effect (Harvard Medical School, 2019).
- What
did Jesus mean when He told people, "Your faith has made you well"?
(Got Questions, 2002-2021).
- Placebos expert Kathryn T Hall: ‘The effect can rival painkillers like ibuprofen or even morphine’ (The Guardian, 2022).
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Also see:-
Culture of Love
Placebo Effect
& CAM
Placebo Effect Quotes
Health articles
Hope [Emotion]
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