Placebo (definition) – any dummy medical treatment; originally, a medicinal preparation having no specific pharmacological activity against the patient’s illness or complaint given solely for the psychophysiological effects of the treatment; more recently, a dummy treatment administered to the control group in a controlled clinical trial in order that the specific and nonspecific effects of the experimental treatment can be distinguished.
Placebo Effect – any effect that seems to be a consequence of taking a placebo, the change is usually beneficial and is assumed to result from the person’s faith in the treatment or preconceptions about what the substance was supposed to do.
I have a question for you. If you have migraines 3 times a week and start taking feverfew capsules to prevent them, do you REALLY care whether the reduction is caused by the feverfew or the placebo effect if you start only having one a month? If it works, does it matter WHY it works?
Isn’t feeling better, having less pain, a good thing no matter what the cause is? I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and doing a lot of research on different types of “Alternative Medicine.” Since I don’t have access to prescription medications any more, I’ve been looking for other ways to treat my fibromyalgia symptoms; trying things like herbs, aromatherapy, stress reduction, etc.; and I’ve found some things that help me.
So here I am, going along my merry way; drinking catnip tea to help me sleep, and ginger tea to reduce my pain and inflammation, adding nutmeg to my food to reduce my depression; and someone says, “You know, that stuff only helps because you BELIEVE it does, not because there’s anything in it that does any good. It’s all the PLACEBO EFFECT.” Hmmm, that made me stop and think.
I’ve done my reading, checked on possible side effects and interactions between the things I put into and on my body, checked the research when I could find some, and tried tiny amounts to see how my body would react before I added something new. (By the way, if herbs don’t have any therapeutic effects or active ingredients, why is there so much information available on possible side effects and interactions? Even the National Institute on Health has a section for herbs now.) I’ve experimented, and these things make me feel better. Do I really care whether they make me feel better because they’re providing an active ingredient that biochemically reacts with my body or because I THINK they’ll make me feel better? No, I don’t think I do, but the question brought up some other interesting questions.
(NOTE: This is just an example. I am not suggesting that you replace your blood pressure medication with celery.)
If I eat celery to reduce my blood pressure, and my blood pressure drops by 10 points, does that 10 point reduction have less of an effect on my health if it’s caused by the placebo effect rather than by a biochemical reaction? Does a 10 point reduction that’s caused by taking a prescription medication reduce the stress on my heart more than a 10 point reduction caused because I THINK the celery will reduce my blood pressure?
If I drink a cup of catnip tea before bed because I think it will help me rest better and wake up with more energy, does it matter whether it works because of a biochemical interaction with my body or the placebo effect when I DO wake up feeling more rested and energetic?
I don’t think it does. I think that the effect is much more important than the reason behind the effect, and if drinking catnip tea makes me feel more rested and energetic; or eating celery reduces my blood pressure, I don’t really care WHY it does it. (Besides, I’ve never woken up with a medication hangover from drinking tea, or gotten woozy from eating a vegetable, and I surely have from taking medications.)
So what do you think? Does it make a difference why you feel better, as long as you do?
(None of the information/opinion provided in this post is intended as medical advice. If you are interested in trying alternative therapies, you should consult a qualified practitioner.)
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