How Does the Placebo Effect Work?

The Placebo Effect Actually Get’s A Bad Rap!

Let’s say there is a study that looks at cold medicine and whether or not it works. In the most basic form one group will be given the medicine, while one group will be given something they believe to be the medicine and the last group will be given nothing that is related to medicine.

The researchers will collect data from each group, like how long they suffered with the cold, what their symptoms were like, and also whether or not they thought that the medication helped to shorten the duration of the cold and helped with the symptoms.

The group that got what they believed was medicine is considered the “placebo group”. If this group reports changes that clearly were not caused by taking the medication (because they were not given any even though they believed they were given the medication) it is considered a placebo effect.

Basically when you believe that you are doing something or taking something to improve your condition and you report that your condition has improved it is the placebo effect.

Is The Placebo Effect a Bad Thing?

If you believe that something is going to help you and it does EVEN if there is no explanation as to why you have been helped does that make it a bad thing? No of course it does not. The placebo effect is actually helpful in many cases.

Believing that something has helped you or that something has improved your condition even when medical science can not confirm why you have felt relief, or if your condition has improved really only points to the fact that the brain has great healing powers over your body.

Self Healing Via The Placebo Effect

The placebo effect may be more valuable than the medical community gives it credit for. If a person can feel better without taking medication and altering their natural stasis simply by believing that what they are doing is improving their condition, then perhaps the placebo effect triggers something in the brain that causes self-healing.

While skeptics put a bit of negative spin on the placebo effect which is largely determined through self reporting it may be a very positive thing. Perhaps it is as much a physical phenomenon that has yet to be measured accurately.

It may be that the ability to self-heal is already present and the placebo effect or the push to believe that you are doing something to heal yourself is all it takes to release the healing powers that are already present in your body.