People are cynical about altnerative treatments, and even when you have proven results, they may say ‘oh, that’s just a placebo effect!’ OK, fine, but its still effective! You keep saying ‘just’ the placebo effect, but what IS the ‘placebo effect?’

In nearly every clinical study that’s ever been conducted, some people will be healed even with no treatment. They create a group called a control group and give them a sugar pill or other PLACEBO to make them think they are getting a treatment.

So now we have two groups, the people getting a treament, and those getting placebo. In both groups, some people will heal.

We focus on and study those healed by the drug, but I might suggest this approach is bass ackwards. We should be studying those who experienced healing without a drug. HOW ARE PEOPLE HEALING WITH JUST THEIR MINDS? That is what we need to figure out! Because its not just about ‘my back feels better’ subjective stuff. People have actually REGROWN HAIR simply because THEY BELIEVE they were taking Rogain, when really they were taking a sugar pill. This seems like emphatic evidence that we can heal ourselves with our mind, and it’s been proven over and over again! The how is the thing…

Psychologists have studied factors that contribute to the placebo effect. They’ve shown the power of engaged healers, human touch, and other factors that could influence the perception of healing, and also real measurable healing. Yet we don’t have cuddle clinics, and most of my western doctors do not touch me during a visit, and are about as engaged as a hooker in Dubai. Guess there’s no money to be made there, no big business to promote that so it dies.

My point here is that many people have experienced healing through placebo alone. It is not up for debate, it is scientific fact.  I think we need a new word to describe this phenomenon. One that doesn’t compare this self contained healing to drug effectiveness, and describe the drug as ineffective. The connotation of ‘placebo effect’ is NO effect, when really its a powerful effect we ought to study as thoroghly as we do drugs.

We need a word to make the idea stick.  A word that is catchy and popular and conveys a very common idea: people CAN heal with the power of their mind alone. This is not a new idea, but that word ‘placebo’ takes away the magic! Its describing the phenomenon in terms of a drug not working instead of a brain and body  that IS working. So, I’m ready to hear suggestions!  For me, I think I like the term mind meds. Or brain gains. How about mental medicine?! What are your suggestions?