I was reading the other day about the use of placebos. They are tablets that are fake but they help the patient anyway because the docter tells them that the tabs are real.
A Wired UK article says that "drugs are having a difficult time beating the placebo effect, and increasingly so. In fact, they're finding the placebo effect is getting stronger in people, making it more difficult for drugs to show any improvement over it".
Having studied the placebo effect, Fabrizio Benedetti found that when someone is given a pill, the brain expects change to happen. Based on that expectation, the brain often then starts producing its own pain-relieving medicine, which can reduce pain and even regulate heart and respiratory functionality.
The problem with placebos is that they are sugar pills. And sugar has a disastrous effect on health. It would make sense if sugar pills were replaced by 'healthy tabs' - full of nutritional value while still being effective as a placebo.
But then the pharmaceutical drug companies wouldn't make their money from us, would they?
They don't want a healthy world.
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