The Placebo Effect: It Could Help

A recent study has found that people who paid higher prices for a placebo, or sugar pill, had better results, or at least they thought they did, than those who paid less for the same exact pill. This study just shows us how powerful our minds really are.

Americans constantly shell out more money for brand name medications that are advertised heavily. We see ads saying that they work; we read testimonials about them; we recognize their names; and they are produced by companies in which we have established some degree of trust. Because these companies are so well-known and trusted, they can charge significantly more for their products than generic brands. We don't mind shelling out more for them, so we do, and we really believe that they work better than the generic brands. There actually may be some truth to that, however, it's not because the brand names are necessarily better, it's because we just truly believe that they are, and our brains can convince our bodies that the drugs are working. It's amazing proof of the mind/body connection at work.

It is to be noted that the placebo effect probably would not be helpful when it comes to drugs like antibiotics, because they actually attack bacteria in our bodies, and our mind can't make our body create antibiotics (that we know of), but it seems that this effect could make us feel less pain. Basically, if we can somehow absolutely convince ourselves that we feel better, then we do.

Unfortunately, doctors can't go around prescribing their patients placebos and charging them large amounts of money for them (though the medical industry would probably love to do that), but this study does open up the door for future studies that could find ways to use the mind/body connection to help patients with pain management. Methods like meditation could possibly be looked at as ways to use our brains to heal ourselves, in a sense. Hopefully science will continue to explore these possibilities, though the pharmaceutical companies would not be happy if ways for people to get rid of pain without use of medication were ever discovered.

What this study really shows us is that having faith in something working for us can really make it work. Our minds are much more powerful than we understand, and, as we continue to learn more and more about the powers they have to keep us healthy and to help us heal, there's no telling what we may find out they can do for us in the future.