Jump to content

The Placebo Effect


Michael Hardman

Recommended Posts

Call me nieve and guilable but Ive just watched a programme on BBC2 all about trying to prove or dis-prove the effectiveness of spiritual healers. The general feeling was that everything boils down to the placebo effect, mind over matter, if you believe something will happen it will. Strange and rather simplistic to believe I know but it got me thinking. Im rarely ill but when I am I get ride of the illness very quickly, especially the flu and pulled muscles, brusing etc... Now the werid bit that may make me look strange, most of the time I become unwell I have something planned for a few days in advance which I cant miss or dont want to miss. In the end Im always better for these important days I wonder if it is a case of me willing myself to be well in time, I dont know for sure but Im kinda believing in it.

Im going to put it too the test in terms of riding and if I think I can pull something wil lI pull it and also when Im recovering from the gym if my aching goes any quickler.

Am I a looney? (I know some of you will call me one anyway) :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alot of things are mind over matter.

Like the spirtual healers. Wave their hands about and hey presto, all the aching gone.

Also we've all watched Darren Brown paralize peoples arms just by talking to them. Putting a needle though them and feeling no pain.

After all pain is just signals to the brain, which can easily be blocked by any means, even if you have something planned that you really want to do, your mind could just block out the pain. We are no where near understanding how the brain works yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe the placebo effect to be very true, I don't know why though.

For example, it is very rare that I get ill, I haven't been sick for 5 years now, and I always eat undercooked food/old food/drink too much/do whatever, because I honestly believe that I won't get ill, and I don't.

Ever notice how successful people are always upbeat and really believe stuff is gonna happen? From reading his autobiography Richard Branson was really like that.

Or how us pessimists always feel when somethings going well, something will happen to screw it up, and it usually does, eg. after months managing to get my band sorted, then the drummer decides they don't wanna do it anymore.

It also links to some theory which I can't remember the name of, that the universe is like frames of a movie, and you can change which direction you will take, and there's thousands of other universes where you take another path.

It also links in with Satanism, with what I can remember, it says that you are your own God of your life, and within reason, you can change what happens in the world around you, and if you really believe something will happen, it can. I find it a very logical and interesting set of beliefs, which contrary to popular belief, has nothing to do with Satan, it was given the name by Anton La Vey as a way to scare people, and to show how people can be afraid of simply a word.

Thats my rant over anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I reckon the placebo effect works.

I woke up on sunday with a rugby match to go to with a banging headache thinking oh great im probably going to come down with something like the flu now and here i am today with nice full on flu well apart from the fever part thats gone away now thankfully. After waking up i just started getting more symptoms and the more i thought about becoming ill the more ill i became.

Or maybe it was just a co-inkydink.

Edited by Bondy
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The placebo effect isn't mind over matter as you lot are discussing, thats psychosomatic effect, I.E. bodily symptoms effected by a mental state. I thought I was sick, so i became sick.

Placebo is fake medication. Plain and simple.... oh unless your a professor studying it.

The placebo effect isn't as simple as it used to be :S . Fabrizio Benedetti of the University of Turin in Italy recently did some work on the placebo effect.

Taken from New Scientist

Several times a day, for several days, you induce pain in someone. You control the pain with morphine until the final day of the experiment, when you replace the morphine with saline solution. Guess what? The saline takes the pain away.

This is the placebo effect: somehow, sometimes, a whole lot of nothing can be very powerful. Except it's not quite nothing. When Fabrizio Benedetti carried out the above experiment, he added a final twist by adding naloxone, a drug that blocks the effects of morphine, to the saline. The shocking result? The pain-relieving power of saline solution disappeared.

So what is going on? Doctors have known about the placebo effect for decades, and the naloxone result seems to show that the placebo effect is somehow biochemical. But apart from that, we simply don't know

Edited by DeeZee
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Perfect example is riding. If you try soming new with a negitive mind set, chances are you tend to fail it.

Driving test, how many of you f**ked up on the first bit and remained positive and passed? How many carried on thinking they'd failed and then failed?

Obviously, its a very difficult thing to prove, all on probability. But I believe it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It also links to some theory which I can't remember the name of, that the universe is like frames of a movie, and you can change which direction you will take, and there's thousands of other universes where you take another path.

"The Butterfly Effect"

Fantastic film. (Y)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

i would say this effect is some what limited, i never get ill but i had the flu a while ago and none of that effect worked for me :P

as for trials i think it works in the sense that if you think you can do it you put 100% into a move instead of maybe 80% (Y)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"The Butterfly Effect"

Fantastic film. (Y)

Yeah, I love that film, but there is an actual scientific theory thats different to that, having just read the book thin I have, it doesn't give the name, but it theorizes that movement could just be a perception, such as cartoons appear to move, but they are just still frames next to each other. It says reality could be a series of billions of multiple universes, all nearly identical, and the only thing moving is your perception or soul moving in between them.

But I'm in way over my head here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Have you never wondered why when you make a move that you've been close to getting, you can do it again almost perfectly if you try it again straight away. If you know you can do it because you have just made it you will believe you can, and subsequently will make it.

you all have to remember though, there is no spoon. Usually works for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"The Butterfly Effect"

Fantastic film. (Y)

Apparently, I look like the nutter off that film, havnt seen it so can't comment lol

EDIT: just googled the film, if this girl thinks i look like Ashton Kutcher then mint lol

Edited by merlin_rider
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...