Did you know...
What is the placebo effect?
In our work we often hear opinions of substances considered extraordinary novelties that have miracle effects.
For example those supplements that have highfalutin names and beautiful packaging, containing little-known ingredients that often don't have scientific evidence.
So why a person, who does not have any special interest, must lie about beneficial effect of the product?
The answer is simple and surprising: DO NOT LIE!
First, let's try to understand what placebo substances are.
To check the effectiveness of a new product it's necessary to make some experiments where a group of subjects takes the substance while another is administered with a neutral substance. Both groups think they have taken the substance to be studied. The word placebo is used to describe this neutral substance and the phenomenon is known as placebo effect.
Very often the neutral substance has the effect that patients expect from test substance as placebos can be highly effective analgesics. Apparently, believing that the treatment will work can be a sufficient cause of the activation of the endogenous brain system which is able to free us from the pain*.
This can explain how sometimes seemingly ineffective substances can give the feeling of having an effect. But we must be careful about how we spend our money, pay one glass of water as an energy miracle potion for example can be very expensive.
*from: "Neuroscienze. Esplorando il cervello".