Healthy individual have many wishes but a sick individual has only one is to get back well. Recovery being not just the matter of healing from the wounds or internal misalignment but as a form of growth too is vital for any form of living organism’s long term survival and evolution. As a quick exercise Imagine you have a lemon infront of you and you cut it in half, now imagine you put one half directly in your mouth and chew it. The physiological changes such as watering in mouth and maybe even a little bit of shake off in the head might be the reaction you may witnessed. This reaction that our body generates even though waht took place is not real is what’s known as placebo. The placebo effect is the fascinating aspect of the biology in which what we understood as the cause and effect has come to blur down and though not fully understood and being studied for a long time placebo effect still is a fascinating mystery which has baffled scientists and experts for more than since mid nineteens.
The Turning Point In The Understading Of Recovery Provess
Sometime around 1943 – 1944 a Harvard anesthesiologist named Dr. Henry Beecher was stationed in Italy during World War 2 treating wounded solders and that was when the discovery that could change the course of human history was made. While treating wounded solders the supply of morphine ran out and in desperate attempt to comfort the solders in pain he then Injected them with the saline solution (salt water) told them it was supposed to relieve their pain but in reality saline water does not function as a painkiller but to the doctor’s surprise more than 30 percent of the solders did reported experiencing the massive reduction in pain and on the top of that later when told the truth some of them even refused to believe that it was not a pain killer because of the pain relief they had. Dr. Henry in details wrote about this phenomenon in his book “ The powerful Placebo” published in 1955 and in that book he wrote in details about this in there and other experiments that soon followed it after he noted this phenomenon for the first time.
The doctor noted that the placebo appeared to be the direct correlation with the individual’s belief systems, perceived value or expected outcome. For example in the test that soon followed in 2010 brought forth another mind blowing variable. The 80 IBS patients involved were told beforehand that what they would get was a placebo therefore blowing the cover and yet remarkable 59% percent of the participants reported the symptom relief despite knowing before hand that the pills they took was a fake sugar pills. Another most common form of placebo which perhaps most of us have already experienced at least once in our lifetime is because of the value perceived and the outcome that one has anticipated. Study conducted in 2008 consisted of 80 participants whom were divided into 2 groups of 40 in each and all of them got the same type of sugar pill but the only difference was that half were told that those pills costs $ 2.50 and another group was told that the pill only cost $ 0.10 and the results were alarmingly predictable. Almost 85% of the the “ expensive “ group reported pain relief and incredible results while from other group 61% showed cost perception boosts efficacy. The conclusion that was reached was that the value perceived is capable of creating the outcome and the mind itself reason to fill in the gap with it’s reasoning. This form of placebo is recognized and utilized across industries and businesses In which despite performance or efficiency of the said product or system is near equal or sometimes even less than other average available options yet the person choosing the option with higher value automatically perceives it’s value.
Present understanding
Our current understanding on placebo till the present is based on the massive volume of research studies and data gathered from various medical institutions and medical practitioners both in physical and mental aspects. In the beginning it was believed that the placebo effects were a instant physiological change at a permanent magnitude but now with more evidence and studies the reasults are appearing different than what we had initially thought. Now experts are beginning to realize that the unlike other forms of treatment or physiological changes, placebo’s effects gets compounded and like a psychological trauma can throw a person into the spiral of negative emotions such as depressions, anxiety and frustration similarly the a placebo trigger can also create a spiral in one’s state of being of either positive or negative reinforcements therefore a balanced and considerate approach is necessary and aside from that other factors such as environment plus other reinforcing beliefs and actions too plays the massive role in one’s state of being. Further studies proved that one’s thought, emotions and environment too had a huge impact on the placebo that takes place and it can go both ways for the individual in turn working on their behalf or against them.
Nocebo
Something that’s mirroring the placebo and is more effective and yet powerful than placebo is something known as Nocebo. It functions is not yet well known as placebo but with very simple logic and thoughtful analysis it’s existence can be confirmed. Apart from that the natural psychological and physiological makeup of human being has evolved in a way that it’s easier as a human being to endulge oneself in spiral of negative thoughts, emotions and state of being than the positive ones. For long expert scientists and researchers have concluded this to be the byproduct of the mechanisms evolved for the survival purpose. The psychological beliefs on one’s fears, anxiety or other negative thoughtforms amplified by the brain’s ability to influence physiological changes. Evidence has proven it to impact an individual’s not just state of being but also one’s psychological state and it’s impact can be witnessed at the individual’s medical examination and tests. Knowing that our imagination and beliefs can have such impact on our real life state of being, it might be in our best interest to be mindful of what we think and choose to believe knowing it will have more or less real life impacts.
