The Placebo Effect
I am totally intrigued by it. If you don't know what it is, here is the definition of the placebo effect as found on the website: Dictionary.com:
placebo effect
n.
The beneficial effect in a patient following a particular treatment that arises from the patient's expectations concerning the treatment rather than from the treatment itself.
This is a good definition. In the case of hair loss, for instance, it means that a person may use something, believing it will regrow their hair and sure enough when they use it they see some hair growth. But, it wasn't the treatment that caused the hair to grow, it was simply the belief that the person who was taking the treatment had that caused the growth!
This is pretty profound stuff. The placebo effect is so common that in order to prove that a drug actually works, scientists must account for the placebo effect in their human trials for the drug. They do this buy having two groups of people, half of which get the real drug, and half of which get a fake drug (sugar pill). In double-blind trials neither the scientists nor the people receiving the drug know who is getting the real thing vs. who isn't. After the people in the trial are examined for the expected effects of the drug, the scientists find out who took the real thing and who didn't. Here's the kicker: unless the effects of the drug are observed more often in the group of people who actually took the real drug than in the group of people who took the sugar pill, the drug is not approved. This is because unless the real drug has more people with the expected results than the fake drug, then the effects can only be attributed to one thing: placebo .
So what does this mean exactly? It means that it is possible to cause an effect in the body, simply by believing wholeheartedly that the effect will happen. Mind over matter. The mind-body connection. Call it whatever you want to, but it's real. And nobody, scientist or mystic really knows why the placebo effect exists or what causes it.
So the fact that such a thing exists makes me wonder whether it is possilbe to tap into it for benefit. Who knows. But I don't think it can hurt to have a positive attitude. Do the best you can, using the proven products, and believe that you're going to get results, and maybe you just will.
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