Are We Making The Most Of The Placebo Effect?

I’m sure most of you are aware of the phenomenon known as the Placebo Effect which has been a subject of some note in the medical world in recent times. To briefly summarize, the most classic example of the effect often given, is when a group of patients with the same medical condition, are split into 2 groups, with one group being given a real drug with active ingredients designed to help relieve the illness they are suffering from, whilst the other group is given a pill and told that it is a real drug, but it actually contains no active ingredients (the Placebo). As well as the patients being given the real drug, some patients from the group given the Placebo report that they felt better, even though they were given a pill containing no illness-targeting ingredients.

This understandably baffled a lot of scientists, and has continued to do so ever since it was first discovered, as it appeared that a person’s beliefs and expectations were having a very real effect on their physical health. The belief alone, generated from a doctor telling somebody that “this pill will help you”, actually seemed to be having a measurable effect.

I can’t help feeling however, that we have not even begun to take any steps towards using this amazing discovery to our advantage. The implications of what the Placebo Effect is telling us, don’t seem to have hit home to us, or the people studying it.

One thing scientists have begun to discover, is that stress hormones seem to play a role in the process. In an experiment involving placebos, the people who reported improvement in symptoms from the placebo, had measurably decreased levels of stress hormones running around their bodies in comparison to before the treatment. It was therefore deduced that the decrease in stress hormones and consequent increase in the more “happy” hormones like dopamine and serotonin, enabled the body to go about fixing the illness by itself, which is why the people felt better.

And this is where I feel that we are not taking full advantage of what the Placebo Effect is demonstrating. The results of this experiment above clearly show that the level of stress hormones in our body, can have a profound effect on the appearance and disappearance of very physical symptoms and ailments.

The hurdle that the mainstream medical community seems yet to get over, is that it is not just the stress and anxiety that is relieved by somebody being told that a placebo pill will cure their problem, but that all of the rest of the stress and anxiety somebody feels on an everyday basis, whether around work or family or relationships or anything, will all have just as much of an effect on the body and how well it works, as the stress caused by worrying about a particular illness.

It’s as though they see that the worry relieved in regard to an illness is somehow separate to somebody’s feelings on other issues in life, failing to spot that it is not the particular issue that somebody is stressed about that is the point, but simply the stress itself. The source of the stress is irrelevant.

I noticed this very profoundly in myself, in the process of recovering from a chronic illness (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome). I was ill for many years and tried all sorts of different “physical” treatments, like diet changes, exercise regimens, massage and lots of other “alternative” treatments, but it was not until I began to address the stress in my life that I ever got any lasting and permanent improvement in my physical symptoms.

The correlation between the two was undeniable for me; the more relaxed and “in control” I felt of my mind and emotions, the more energy I got and less symptoms I began to feel.

The implications for this concept, I believe could be enormous. The general opinion and mindset today is that we are, in essence, at the mercy of our genes. Whatever genetic hand we were dealt at birth will determine what illnesses we develop, and when we will get them. But what the Placebo Effect is demonstrating to us, is that our genes are only a sort of threshold for how far we can push our bodies in terms of physical, mental and emotional stress, before an illness develops. If we go over our “threshold” an illness may develop, but if we then re-adjust the stress levels in our life, like in the placebo example, a physical illness can be reversed, and it is the body that does this itself. It just needs the right balance of hormones and a little time and the possibilities of what could be cured are quite tantalizing.

So if you are intrigued by what I have said, I invite you to read a little deeper into the Placebo Effect and look at your own life and ask yourself if stress could be contributing to any illness or ailment you may be suffering from. It has certainly changed my life in an unbelievable way and could well do the same for you too.

Best Wishes

Jack