The Remarkable Power of Placebos

remarkable power of the human brain to unconsciously influence the functioning and perception of the body. B The term, which is Latin for 'I shall please,' was first used sometime during the 1700s, but the concept itself dates back centuries. Historically, doctors believed that one of their key duties, in addition to curing a patient, was to console him or her, providing a boost to the morale that could help them to get better faster - sometimes in the form of a dummy medicine that had no effect beyond instilling the expectation of improvement in the patient's brain. It's now widely recognized that, while largely ineffective in improving objective symptoms, such as high blood pressure or an infection, for instance, placebos are genuinely effective in treating subjective, self-reported symptoms, including all sorts of pain. Placebos can take all sorts of forms: inert sugar pills, sham surgeries, and saline injections. C The singular power of expectations has been demonstrated in a variety of studies. In one, for example, patients given a placebo pill that is referred to as a muscle relaxer will experience muscle relaxation, while those given a placebo called a muscle stimulator will experience muscle tension. The flip…