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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Indianapolis (January 2, 2013)-Maybe you have comforted a crying child by kissing her scraped knee to “make it all better”-and seen her tears turn to a smile and the pain recede. Perhaps you’ve stumbled to the medicine cabinet, half asleep at 2a.m., taken an acetaminophen for the headache that woke you, felt better-and discovered in the morning that you had actually taken a calcium pill.
In the January/February issue of The Saturday Evening Post, on newsstands now, veteran medical correspondent Sharon Begley reports on the latest studies and findings behind the placebo effect. “Like most people, I thought of the placebo effect as something that operated mostly in the realm of pain,” Begley remarked. “But a few years ago I came across a study finding that it can also work against Parkinson’s disease, which seemed to elevate it to a new realm.”
Begley’s report finds that as researchers uncover more and more conditions that respond to placebos, they are gaining new respect for the power of the mind. They are also learning how a belief or expectation can travel from the brain to arthritic knees, asthmatic airways, hypertensive blood vessels, and sites of pain. Understanding these mechanisms hold out the promise of tapping the placebo response more systematically, so more illnesses can be treated not with pills and operations (which almost always come with side effects or other risks) but with the power of the mind.
The Post feature notes that for all of the progress science has made in understanding the placebo response, mysteries remain. No one knows whether certain personality types, ages, genders, or nationalities are more susceptible to the placebo response-though it has been noted that placebos don’t work as well in skeptical people as they do in trusting souls.
Current research raises important questions about medical practice in the 21st century. Begley reports that today, more and more doctors are applying the placebo effect in their practices, not by lying to patients about a treatment (which is unethical), but by recommending relaxation therapy, medication, and other mind-based practices.
The complete report appears in the January/February issue of The Saturday Evening Post or online athttp://www.
About The Saturday Evening Post: For nearly 300 years, The Saturday Evening Post has chronicled American history in the making-reflecting the distinctive characteristics and values that define the American way. Today’s Post continues the grand tradition of providing art, entertainment and information in a stimulating mix of idea-driven features, cutting-edge health and medical trends-plus fiction, humor, and laugh-out-loud cartoons. A key feature is the Post Perspective, which brings historical context to current issues and hot topics such as health care, religious freedom, education, and more. Tracing its roots to Benjamin Franklin, The Saturday Evening Post mirrors cherished American ideals and values, most memorably illustrated by its iconic cover artist Norman Rockwell. The Post is also known for publishing such literary greats as Ray Bradbury, Agatha Christie, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edgar Allan Poe, and Kurt Vonnegut, and continues to seek out and discover emerging writers of the 21st century. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the Post is a publication of the nonprofit Saturday Evening Post Society, which also publishes the award-winning youth magazines Turtle, Humpty Dumpty, and Jack and Jill.
“As the nation changed, the Post changed, but it looks to its past as a fertile ground
for its future.”--Starkey Flythe, Jr, Former Post Executive Editor
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