Re: Mission Impossible

On Aug 24, 4:31 am, Zetsu <absolutelyinvinci...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello,

What does 'placebo' mean, please? I read a dictionary which said it is
a sugar pill or something, but I still don't understand! Please
someone explain it in easy words.

Hi Zetsu

Over the years various drugs have been proposed for this illness or
that illness. The doctor offers the pill to the patient saying these
will make you feel better. Lets say the patient does get better.
Can we then say the drug was effective?

It is a well known "feature" of the human body that the power of
suggestion can create beneficial changes in a person. Some would
say the doctor is a healer who offers healing suggestions to his
patients.

Therefore to decide if drugs are effective all manner of procedures
are used to ensure the person getting the pill and giving the pill has
no idea what they are giving to the patient.

If on administering the pill the suggestion is made the person is
going to get well and they do get will and only a sugar pill or an
entirely ineffective pill is given then this is "the placebo effect"
in action.

Obviously if you take a pill there is always this implicit suggestion
that you are going to get well if you take the pill.

In the context that Mike is using the term it does not really apply to
myopia so i am not sure what he means.

The placebo *effect* is a real change that can be measured.

Since there is no recognised cure for myopia then ***any*** permanent
improvements in myopia after taking a sugar pill would be in fact a
sensational discovery.

So when he says:

"Only an idiot would
claim that placebo treatments can cure the world's vision problems"

It is not really clear what he means.

He might be correct. If an *ineffective* treatment was given like a
sugar pill and that was *all* that was given then we would not expect
a cure.

However, if at the same time the sugar pill was given as being a cure
for myopia some kind of powerful suggestions were being given to the
patient then the outcome could be very different.

So if the doctor offering the placebo also said in a casual way during
the course of the examination something that convened the following
message "Science has proven it is not genetic. For some reason it
seems your behaviour has changed recently? This myopia seem related
to the death of your father last year perhaps? For now you dont need
glasses. It would be better to retest you next month before school
starts. Would you like to come in and talk to me next week about
your dad? He was a fine man. I can see you are quite upset
still. You seem quite anxious about that and at your age i am
reluctant to offer you a strong medication. I spoke to your mother
earlier in the week and she seems to be finding things quite hard
too. Losing her job cant be helping either. Talking could be very
helpful for you all perhaps? Meanwhile if you can get out and about
around the farm I am sure the fresh air will help"

Then if this suggestion was not known to the researchers testing the
myopia drug on trial given to *other* patients they might find that
this particular doctor had a better record of success for the sugar
pill than the doctors who just offered the pill with no other "healing
input" to the patient and then say this was a "placebo effect".

So if the myopia drug did not get such good results as this doctors
sugar pill they would conclude the myopia drug was no more effective
than placebo.

I am not really sure what Mike is saying when he keeps mentioning
placebos. Effectively he is just reinforcing his opinion that my
treatment is entirely bogus and ineffective, that i am an idiot and so
forth.

Only an idiot would claim that placebo treatments can cure the world's vision problems

So "placebo" in this context is an example of science in action in the
human world where science and facts tend to be opinion driven before
they are driven by the more tedious and boring accumulation of
empirical evidence.

With this opinion based science old studies that dont fit the opinion
are just dismissed as being irrelevant and yet newer studies are
demanded until such point in time that the "correct" results are
obtained.

It is a bit like getting information from prisoners by pulling their
thumb nails off or crushing their testicles. You tend to get the
information you are looking for regardless of the facts.

A.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Expensive Placebos Work Better Than Cheap Ones
    ... Odd Experiment Suggests a High Price Tag May Be a Formula for Pain ... Technology compared the placebo effect of the marketing that people ... They were then given a placebo pill alongside a fake drug company ...
    (misc.health.alternative)
  • Re: Homeopathics exposed - Yay!
    ... Oh, the placebo effect exists. ... Suppose I concoct a pill, a sugar pill, and in controlled tests my pill was ... Will the FDA approve the drug? ...
    (alt.home.repair)
  • Re: Campaign launched against dietary supplements
    ... >> test it wherethings like these mental things are not allowed to interfere. ... >> The placebo effect is what the science people call it. ... >> stuff and which has some typical thing like a sugar pill. ... >What the west calls placebo the east calls chi. ...
    (sci.med.nutrition)
  • Re: Campaign launched against dietary supplements
    ... >> test it wherethings like these mental things are not allowed to interfere. ... >> The placebo effect is what the science people call it. ... >> stuff and which has some typical thing like a sugar pill. ... >What the west calls placebo the east calls chi. ...
    (sci.med)
  • Re: Expensive placebos work better
    ... Want a sugar pill to work really well? ... A study published on Tuesday shows the well-known "placebo effect" ... works even better if the dummy pill costs more. ... The word placebo comes from the Latin word for "I shall please." ...
    (uk.philosophy.humanism)