The Placebo Effect: Mind Over Medicine
The Placebo Effect: Mind over Medicine
When we hear the phrase, “The mind controls the body,” we immediately think of the voluntary processes we make our bodies do. If you want to pick up a toy from the ground, you will direct your brain on how you want to move to pick it up, and it will then move the necessary muscles to achieve that goal. This process of “need-order-achieve” is the same mechanism that directs our everyday lives. An important question must be asked here: what if this procedure could be used for more?
Today, scientists and physicians around the world are discovering a new, deeper meaning to the phrase. Our brains can influence our bodies in ways that, at a time, were thought the stuff of folklore. One of …show more content…
Since the 1970s, researchers have known that placebos use the same chemical pathways that their medicinal counterparts do by proving that by chemically restricting the release of endorphins, the body’s natural pain-killer, scientists could restrict the effect of placebos. For example, researcher Fabrizio Benedetti of the University of Turin (Italy) has shown that placebos use the same pathways that opium and marijuana, pleasure inducing-substances, do. Other researchers have proven that placebos increase the excretion of dopamine, a chemical that influences pleasure and reward sensations and emotions (“The Placebo Phenomenon”). While others have shown that some placebos (depending on the need of the patient) have the ability to reduce the response of the brain’s pain-sensing regions. Another speculation is that while this region can also release pain-relieving opioids in the brain, it can also draw attention away from the pain (“Revealed: How Placebo Effect Works”). In essence, the placebo effect is many other psychological effects intertwined together, such as the Hawthorne effect (the existence of change due to the awareness of being studied) and the “regression to the mean” (a statistical phenomena that can make natural variance appear as though the result of real change)(“The Placebo Effect and other Confounders” & “The Placebo Phenomenon” & “The Hawthorne Effect: Stronger than the Placebo Effect?”). To conclude, these are merely hypotheses. The definite answer will be known when the brain, and its full impact on the body, has been fully
When we hear the phrase, “The mind controls the body,” we immediately think of the voluntary processes we make our bodies do. If you want to pick up a toy from the ground, you will direct your brain on how you want to move to pick it up, and it will then move the necessary muscles to achieve that goal. This process of “need-order-achieve” is the same mechanism that directs our everyday lives. An important question must be asked here: what if this procedure could be used for more?
Today, scientists and physicians around the world are discovering a new, deeper meaning to the phrase. Our brains can influence our bodies in ways that, at a time, were thought the stuff of folklore. One of …show more content…
Since the 1970s, researchers have known that placebos use the same chemical pathways that their medicinal counterparts do by proving that by chemically restricting the release of endorphins, the body’s natural pain-killer, scientists could restrict the effect of placebos. For example, researcher Fabrizio Benedetti of the University of Turin (Italy) has shown that placebos use the same pathways that opium and marijuana, pleasure inducing-substances, do. Other researchers have proven that placebos increase the excretion of dopamine, a chemical that influences pleasure and reward sensations and emotions (“The Placebo Phenomenon”). While others have shown that some placebos (depending on the need of the patient) have the ability to reduce the response of the brain’s pain-sensing regions. Another speculation is that while this region can also release pain-relieving opioids in the brain, it can also draw attention away from the pain (“Revealed: How Placebo Effect Works”). In essence, the placebo effect is many other psychological effects intertwined together, such as the Hawthorne effect (the existence of change due to the awareness of being studied) and the “regression to the mean” (a statistical phenomena that can make natural variance appear as though the result of real change)(“The Placebo Effect and other Confounders” & “The Placebo Phenomenon” & “The Hawthorne Effect: Stronger than the Placebo Effect?”). To conclude, these are merely hypotheses. The definite answer will be known when the brain, and its full impact on the body, has been fully