I’ve been speaking and writing about the power of the placebo effect being very real. It’s been demonstrated to be as effective as real surgeries when a sham surgery was done instead. Drugs trials have to prove that they’re better than the placebo effect for the drug to be licensed.
Researchers are now finding that a placebo painkiller which is aimed at reducing pain will even induce the same physical changes to areas of the brain linked to pain management. This means it’s the person’s mind that is creating the pain reduction impact.
Researchers at Dartmouth College analyzed the MRI data from the brains of 600 people who were given a placebo for pain. The researchers found clear and significant changes in the brain areas associated with regulating pain.
Patients who reported the most pain relief had the biggest changes in the brain areas that respond to pain. This included the thalamus and basal ganglia areas of the brain.
Years ago, I wrote about modern medicine going in the wrong direction. Instead of developing more pills, we should be teaching people how to increase the placebo effect. So…imagine you have an accident and have a great deal of pain in one part of your body. You sit back, take a couple of deep breaths and visualize a specific part of the brain releasing pain reducing chemicals and viola, you are quickly free of pain! FOR REAL!!!
(Reported: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell You, May 2021)
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