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Placebo effect - nothing new, but worth knowing...

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Posted 1/2/2012 2:45 AM (GMT 0)
A thought that has been running through my head in a few recent discussions, but which seems better addressed in a separate (no doubt not "new" but I don't see any recent threads about it) thread.

The upside of the placebo effect...

One oft-misunderstood aspect of placebo-controlled trials (when one group gets "new wonder-drug candidate X" and the other gets a sugarpill, or a saline shot, or whatever looks like the "new wonder-drug candidate X" being tested) is that folks getting the sugar pill (or whatever) often have a positive response. ie, they take "nothing" but they get (somewhat - occasionally entirely) better. Even weirder, some research into the placebo effect itself shows that you can even get a benefit if you KNOW you are getting the placebo.

...and how might this help? Well, if you have some food, or supplement or whatever that you think helps you, that may well mean that it does help you - even if it doesn't prove to have benefits in a placebo-controlled blind study. If you think it helps, it may indeed help, simply by your body expecting it to help, and somehow making it be so. Which is pretty amazing, really.

I'm hereby believing that eating garlic will help me maintain my membership in the Zero club. cool

...and I'll have to think of something else to believe in that's going to help me get in the Zero-Pad club sooner rather than later..
Posted 1/2/2012 3:18 AM (GMT 0)
Not to say I have an opinion on placebos, but the other day in one of those mega fund-raising marathons there was a several-hour spot for a doctor who is promoting the value of eating certain foods with what he called "micro-nutrients". Garlic was high on the list of extremely good things, along with kale.

I can't stand kale, but garlic goes in almost everything I make. If it really helped me with my PCa, I guess that means I would have died of mets years ago if I hadn't lived in Europe and changed my diet. It seems like a lot they come up with that should help - I've already been doing it, and look where it got me mad

 

Posted 1/2/2012 3:19 AM (GMT 0)
This thread from a year ago indicates that M&Ms may be an excellent placebo ~ they work for children too :-)
Posted 1/2/2012 3:58 AM (GMT 0)
Interesting theory, but no one I can buy into at the personal level. I am a facts and figure realist. If something can't be proven to me based on facts alone, I tend not to believe it. Garlic is tasty for sure, but there's no part of me that would think it could have any possible effect on my cancer. Not picking on garlic, I feel that way about other foods and supplements that supposedly aid people.

Certainly not going to hurt you any, and will keep the vampires away, so they say.

David in SC
Posted 1/3/2012 12:18 AM (GMT 0)
You might be missing the point, then, David.

I haven't seen anything, anywhere, claiming that garlic helps PCa - and I don't need to, and I'm not claiming it does. Nor am I, in the least, suggesting that anyone should forgo actual treatment where appropriate. Having undergone treatment, I'm now on the "did it work" routine of PSA tests. Playing a bit of mind game with the hope of avoiding a recurrence is harmless, and MIGHT actually help, and does not involve choosing hoodoo over an actual medical procedure, as the actual medical procedure at this point is wait and hope it doesn't come back. Perhaps bone mets are started by the tips of vampire fangs ;-)

The real facts and figures are that the placebo effect is real, and significant. Look into some of the research on it. Therefore, if I tell myself that "garlic will help" there are research-backed odds that "it will" or rather, that my body will help itself through as yet not understood means. Could chose purple M&Ms instead of garlic - it's not the "thing" - it's the mind game that matters.

The mind-blowing aspect is that the mind game can work even if you know full well that you are eating a purple M&M. Haven't tracked down that specific piece in a handy online format, but here are a couple of articles to get you started:

rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/366/1572/1905.full
www.annals.org/content/136/6/471.full
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