Placebo

Placebo

My Understanding and Thoughts on the Placebo and Its Effects
There is no universally accepted definition of placebo. To my understanding, placebo is a substance or procedure a patient accepts as medicine or therapy, but no specific therapeutic activity actually happens. Any therapeutic effect is thought to be based on the power of suggestion or imagination.
The placebo effect or placebo response is a therapeutic or healing effect of an inert medicine or ineffective therapy, or simply is the psychosocial aspect of medical treatments. It occurs when a patient's symptoms are altered in some way by a treatment, due to the individual expecting or believing that it will work. It’s a powerful force in healing that is not restricted to the use of sugar pills or to deception. However, how and why it happens remains a mystery.
There are numerous positive effects that placebo has on our patients and society. The followings are just a few of them I believe that are the most meanful.
1. Although we can’t absolutely control or guarantee the placebo response, we can apply it to heal faster, stay healthier, and generally function better. Many patients and wounded soldiers recovered better and sooner, and lived longer by placebo treatment: believing strongly in the healing powers of the mind, forgiving others and themselves, staying positive, feeling care and love, and making most out of remaining days of life.
2. In both conventional and alternative medicine, people are becoming much more comfortable with the ways the mind and the body can interact. Scientists are discovering new connections between the imagination and the emotions and human health and illness.
3. There are many different ways we can work with and alter people’s expectancies. These all become potentially valuable tools for healings. For example, give patients encouraging information about their health, promise patients that progress is being made to their recovery. All these...