Why do placebos work so well?

Question

The placebo effect has been well-documented. Patients who believe they are receiving cures may heal quicker than others who are untreated. People who are told what to expect often experience that sensation moreso than others who are not given advanced notice.

Why do you believe this occurs? ((and what is your religious affiliation))

Answer 1

Mind over matter. Same with faith healers.

Answer 2

This is really interesting...placebos work well but for only a short period of time.
This is because our brains are remarkable chemical factories. All drugs that are on the market today are designed to react in a certain way with receptors in the brain which were obviously evolved (not I did not say DESIGNED) to accept these chemical substances.
When a placebo is taken as part of a drug trial, and the patient knows the drug trial purpose (for example, pain relief), then the simple act of taking the medication makes our brain manufacture small amounts of the chemical compound designed to serve that purpose in the brain.
The placebo effect is short lived, but definitely there. This is why most drug studies are double blind so that the patients taking placebo do not know the desired effect and skew the results.
Interestingly enough, placebo effect has been noted in patients with conditions as serious as Parkinson's Disease, where fake neurological impulses 'delivered to the brain' stop shaking in PD patients.
Check out WNYC's podcast radiolab, where there was a really interesting episode a couple of months ago about just this subject.

Answer 3

The human mind is extremely malleable, and is capable of doing many things. If you watch "Mind Control" on the SciFi Channel you will see many examples of causal manipulation and reading people's body language and "tells". The bad thing is, like any good magician, he doesn't always explain how he does the stuff that he does. As far as the body curing it self, there are many cases that seem to indicate that a positive attitude, or a refusal to be sick effects the duration of an illness. There is of course many stories of people that have cured serious illness by laughing etc, but I don't know if any of them have been verified or not.

The down side to placebos is that while they work occasionally, more often they don't or only have a temporary effect... The classic example is placebo birth control pills.

Atheist.

Answer 4

The power of faith is so strong many can heal themselves with faith alone. Now if you use that same faith in Jesus Christ anything is possible. The reason a placebo works is those who take them have little or no doubt they will work, the reason so many cant have faith in Jesus is that we cannot combined feel and sight with faith when believing in Jesus. Where a placebo is to fool some one into thinking they have something different the opposite is true of Jesus he will show no miracle until after the faith in him is sure. Jesus will also only heal or do what is right to ask. Some things are not right to ask and we may not know why now but will find out later why.
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ L.D.S.

Answer 5

Mind and body obviously have a strong feedback loop going. Which is not surprising since the latter gives rise to the former. Although I have my doubts about whether a placebo treatment for cancer or AIDS would work. In fact, I have a strong hunch that while the patient might feel better for a while, he will eventually drop dead.

Answer 6

Very simply because the body already has within it elements to cure any affliction that may affect it but we don't realize it consciously.

A placebo works the same way that prayer works by tricking the mind into believing that it is working when actually it the body fixing itself...

Religious affiliation---- Thelemite

Answer 7

People are weak. They can't accept their faults and believe they need a pill to cure them. Those that don't pop pills hit the bottle. Life is grand.

Answer 8

It reminds me of the public transportation employee who worked almost everyday of his life for 80 years. He finally retired and couple of months later he was dead. If he'd kept working, who knows he might've lived to be 1000. (<-- That's hyperbole) Our mental perception of life has a huge effect on our lives.

Answer 9

They don't, always.

But you have to understand menatlity. 60% of most sickness is psychosomatic, done to get attention.

So, you give them a magic pill of milk powder and a pep talk and it works 2 out of 3 times.

Answer 10

The mind is a very powerful thing.