The Placebo Effect

What do the spells cast by voodoo practitioners and researchers testing the effectiveness of the latest drug concoction have in common? The placebo effect. The more you believe you’re going to benefit from a drug or procedure, the more likely it is that you will experience a benefit.

From time to time we encounter skeptics of chiropractic who dismiss the sometimes amazing results our patients receive. Written off as merely the placebo effect, these cynics virtually ignore the mind/body connection that most forward-thinking health care experts are finally recognizing.

Placebo (from the Latin ‘I will please’) is often a sugar pill or some type of sham treatment that invokes the beliefs of the patient, and in double blind studies, the beliefs of the doctor. Some studies show that placebos are 30% to 40% effective.

But don’t overlook the "nocebo" effect.

You’ve undoubtedly witnessed the evil twin of the placebo on television hospital dramas. The nocebo (from the Latin ‘I will harm’) is based on the effects of negative beliefs. Telling a patient to get their affairs in order because they have but two months to live is almost a death sentence, frequently creating a self-fulfilling prophecy due to the belief. Being "scared to death" or "worried sick" can be equally powerful expressions that show up in our self-talk.

Is the success that chiropractic patients enjoy merely the placebo effect? Placebo or not, chiropractic produces results at a fraction of the cost without the harmful side effects of drugs or surgery. Plus, chiropractic care regularly helps newborns, infants and even house pets and horses for which the power of the believing mind is more difficult to explain.

Whom do you know that believes we could help them with today’s safe and natural chiropractic care? Have them give us a call.