PLACEBO

A recent TV ad for a medication to lower blood pressure brought to mind a long held fascination of mine with the Placebo Effect. The fine print of the ad stated that pill had reduced blood pressure in 86% of those tested, compared to 38% of the control group. So, you should rush right out and get your doctor to write a script for this chemical miracle pill. Let’s put aside the whole issue of taking a pill or having by-pass surgery instead of exercising and eating better, which is a whole ‘nuther rant.

WHAT ABOUT THAT 38% ???  If the study was a typical double blind, half of the subjects were given a placebo (inert/clay tablet). They were told it was a medication to lower blood pressure, as were those who were given the actual active chemical. Isn’t anyone in the medical field excited by the fact that more than one in three folks in the control group lowered their own blood pressure ?  The historical record is full of examples of self regulation of bodily function. My favorite is the Pacific island, where young women chewed the leaves of a particular plant to stop menstrual flows – native birth control. It turns out that there was absolutely nothing in the chemistry of the plant to account for this. It was the power of generations of belief by the island women.

We humans clearly have some capacity for self healing. My belief is that most ‘miracle” sites, such as Lourdes and ‘faith healings’ are caused not by the healer, but the one who is healed. The lack of interest in pursuing and encouraging this human ability is shocking to me. The two catches seem to be that we seem to need some ‘outside’ force to ‘trick’ us into the healing and also, the pharmaceutical firms are already entrenched in another route.

Maybe that’s too cynical.