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Placebo Effect Caught In the Act In Spinal Nerves
SerpensV passes along the news that German scientists have found direct evidence that the spinal cord is involved in the placebo effect (whose diminishing over time we discussed a bit earlier). "The researchers who made the discovery scanned the spinal cords of volunteers while applying painful heat to one arm. Then they rubbed a cream onto the arm and told the volunteers that it contained a painkiller, but in fact it had no active ingredient. Even so, the cream made spinal-cord neural activity linked to pain vanish. 'This type of mechanism has been envisioned for over 40 years for placebo analgesia,' says Donald Price, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida in Gainesville, who was not involved in the new study. 'This study provides the most direct test of this mechanism to date.'"
The placebo effect isn't getting weaker, it's getting more effective. The /. article linked even states that. It the reason why if prozac was a new drug today it more than likely would have been rejected by the FDA.
Also see these Wired & TechDirt articles.
http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect?currentPage=all
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090827/0212446014.shtml
There is a war going on for your mind.
I have chronic headache and have been a subject in studies. It is well-known that anticipation is an observable component to pain notification and response. To an almost hilarious extent, pain is like gravity in cartoons: if you don't believe it exists, you're less likely to experience it.
captcha: scratchy (they fight...)
well, according to my understanding of the placebo effect its entirely mind over matter, so i could wave a TV remote at your face and say that this is more effective for pain relief than Morphine. if you believe it, it just may be. i'm personally a fan of placebos, though many arent. truthfully, if it works, it doesnt matter if i'm being tricked, and as i put my flamesuit on because i can feel whats coming, having worked in the medical field, including emergency medicine i can honestly say that any instances where an emergency is occurring i've _never_ seen a placebo used. efficacy is more important in a situation where life and death is concerned. if you have a 'tension hedache' and you're seeking prescription medication, dont bitch and moan when your headache disappears from a sugar pill.
i wage a holy war against the apostrophe.
Bend over... this won't hurt a bit... I've got some special cream to rub in...
Acupuncture has been analyzed and re-analyzed to death already. There has never been any reliable effect, and as studies become increasingly more well-designed, effect sizes diminish or disappear completely. This is a sign that there is nothing happening. Amusingly, acupuncture with fake needles is consistently shown to be just as effective as real acupuncture. It's telling that proponents often consider that to be evidence in favour of acupuncture.
I gotta say, posting a link claiming the placebo effect is "diminishing over time" when that link is to a Slashdot article saying precisely the opposite is a new low.
Hell, you don't even have to click on the link: you can see what it actually says just by reading the URL!
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I have a degenerative disease, have had a laminectomy, bone spur removals, and have some messed up disks and nerve damage. I've been in some amount pain for about six years and have run the medicine gauntlet.
From experience, I've been prescribed medicine where the doctor's told me "this is much better than what you are on, it will manage your pain much more effectively". I got all excited, and started taking it. On the first day I was miserable. The second and third days were even worse. After a week I switched back.
I really think that the placebo effect only works for small amounts of pain, or for certain kinds of pain (there are a lot of different types). In my case, I ended up with a spinal implant (kind of like an internal tens unit) and take a small amount of medicine to manage the pain. It still hurts every day, but I get by much better and work a 40 to 50 hour week and raise kids.
Cows doesn't have inner pain receptors like humans do. They only feel the pain from breaking the skin, but no pain from a doctor operating inside. For this reason operations and experiments on cows often happens using nothing but a local anesthesia to numb the skin.
Hardly mind over matter, simply a bio-chemical organ that can be induced to produce a range of neurotransmitters and hormones based upon psychological states. Don't be fooled though, whilst reactions might be controllable and the negative impact that stress and tension has upon recovery can be alleviated when a supportive environment is provided, it will not change the nature of the ailment itself. So a placebo is not really a placebo but a psychological treatment to assure the patient and alleviate stress and tension, which allows natural healing processes to function more effectively.
Note dependent upon the background of the patient this can also include religious support as long as the belief is there and of course the illness falls within scope of natural healing processes which would otherwise be circumscribed by fear and stress. No mind over matter, no miracle cures although of course genetic diversity and probability allows for luck to cure the most lethal of ailments, you know one in a million don't bet on it though as you far more likely to end up in the 999,999 group.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
The problem is when someone mistakes treating symptoms for treating causes. If you feel better, but you're still dying, then you're still dying.
Mod UP--this is what a lot of drugs do, one of the worst offenders being statin drugs for high cholesterol. In addition to causing muscle-degenerative problems after long-term use, artificially lowering the cholesterol in the bloodstream does not solve the actual problem, which is the reason it was there to begin with. Long story short, cholesterol is what 'patches up' holes in the vessel walls caused by wear and tear, foreign particles in the blood, or (big one here) inflammation. And some of the biggest things that cause inflammation in general are refined sugars, foods one has an allergy or sensitivity to (dairy and wheat being big ones), "bad" fats (omega-6 rather than omega-3) and of course smoking. Getting rid of the cholesterol doesn't get rid of the inflammation, and in fact makes your body unable to repair the damage as well. Fix the underlying problem and the amount of cholesterol will go down.
Sorry to go off on a tangent, but this is something I've done a lot of research on lately, and it's something that seems to get ignored by the mainstream. I'm guessing it's mostly because curing the source of a problem means the drug companies can't make money off someone as long, perpetually suppressing the outward symptoms while the real issue continues to fester. It's like continuing to spray air-fresheners and light scented candles around the garbage can instead of just taking the stinking bag out.
10 FILL MUG WITH COFFEE
20 DRINK COFFEE
30 GOTO 10
Pain is where you find it, its certainly not everywhere in the human body.
I had a stent put in my heart last week and the only anesthetic needed is a local in the groin where they feed the wire in.
I also have to inject myself in the stomach twice a day and there are some sites which will hurt and others which are completely painless. I just gently prod with the needle till i find a pain free spot and just let the needle sink in under its own weight.
I'd also rate dental pain as probably the worst pain in the male body , it's possible child birth might be more painful but we have no way of knowing. I believe cancer tops all other pain.
Getting my fingers and hands sliced up in an attempted mugging about the same as a wasp sting (a brief sharp pain). Heart attack is about the same as a tattoo but scary.
best pain killer has to be morphine not just for the pain relief but for the relaxed attitude , you just don't feel panic or fear. If I have a choice in how I die other than in my sleep it would be whilst under the influence of morphine.
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
I believe cancer tops all other pain.
Had Leukemia, didn't hurt at all. Some of the stuff to treat it did though.