in the Wikipedia article on the placebo effect it starts out by defining the placebo effect as a “sham”:
A placebo… is a sham or simulated medical intervention that can produce a (perceived or actual) improvement, called a placebo effect.
Wrong.
Very wrong.
Very very wrong.
Calling the effect a “sham” epitomizes the current emphasis in medicine on the physical level of intervention while ignoring the psychological. The physical changes that come about because of perception and belief are measurable and profound; the way the mind works is hardly a sham.
One of my favorite examples of how to take medication is from Sally Ride, the first woman astronaut:
She is also not without quirks—she firmly believes that Anacin tablets go down more easily when the little arrow imprinted on them is pointed toward the back of the throat. That superstition Sally laughingly ascribes to overexposure to the humanities while in college. (Source)
Quirk? Superstition? Hardly. The way we think about things greatly affects how they work.
Although I have not seen any research on this, and have not come across it anywhere on the internet, the research on the placebo effect suggests that
When you take pills, breathe deeply, relax and visualize how they are going to help you….
This goes not just for prescribed medication, but for supplements and vitamins.
(Of course, This means taking one pill at a time rather than swallowing them all at once.)
Additional posts will soon focus on research about visualization, breathing, and relaxation techniques.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Re Medical outcome studies – Statistics are human beings with the tears wiped off.
Medications and placebos both indicate that the outcomes of what we consume is a chemistry experiment and a mystery with individual and unique outcomes. The chemistry experiment or mystery of outcomes can involve psychological and/or biochemical variables. The chemistry experiment is not a controlled study but does include the independent variables of our unique and individual magnificently wondrous body and its systems (chemical refinery), brain, cognition, emotions, beliefs, superstitions, values, learning, what has been modeled for us, our family system, what attributions, misattributions, and myths we carry with us, our education, the mystery of the relationship with the healer and the patient, our dreams, what the physical problem actually is, the healer’s hypothesis about the malady, our history of body misadventures, our vintage, the confusing statistical studies about the medicines (chemicals) we take, and many others.
Dr. Turner:
All of these variables make me dizzy. Is there some pill for this?