"The pain is in our brains."
Interesting excerpts from an article on the placebo effect:
“For years, scientists have looked at the placebo effect as just a figment of overactive patient imaginations. Sure, dummy medications seemed to curb epileptic seizures, lower blood pressure, soothe migraines and smooth out jerky movements in Parkinson’s - but these people weren’t really better. Or so scientists thought.
Now, using PET scanners and MRIs to peer into the heads of patients who respond to sugar pills, researchers have discovered that the placebo effect is not “all in patients’ heads” but rather, in their brains. New research shows that belief in a dummy treatment leads to changes in brain chemistry.”
“A signal starts out at an injured site and travels up to the brain, Mackey explains. But, until the brain interprets that electrical signal, you don’t actually ‘feel’ pain.”
Placebo’s power goes beyond the mind
Scientists tap into fake pill’s effects to help real pains