Homeopathy is one medical discipline which can cure any disease without any harmful side effects. Nor does it need any invasive procedures, not even any painful pricks. Just take some sugar pills and you can cure yourselves.
I wish the claims were really true. But unfortunately, countries after countries are either declaring Homeopathy as pseudoscience or they frown on its claims as baseless. The recent case is the declaration of an Australian government sponsored study that “Homeopathy is not effective in any known disease”; or to put it in politically correct words - “there is no evidence that Homeopathy is effective”.
But how is it that millions of people all over the world swear that Homeopathy has cured them of all their illnesses?
In modern medical science they often use the term ‘placebo’ – a medicine that is not really a medicine but a make-believe substance, given to a patient to see whether their conditions can improve just by their belief that they have really been given some genuine medicine. This is often used in clinical trials of new medicines.
Of late, this idea of placebo is extended to any treatment – with or without ingesting any substance, where just the faith alone can show the desired result. Such effects are called Placebo effects.
Is the claimed effectiveness of Homeopathy just a placebo effect?
Lot of studies have been done on placebo effects. Your getting cured by some prayer to some God, or by the blessings of a Godman, or performing some occult ritual, can all be placebo effects. The effect is real, though the treatment was fake.
Scientists have studied such cases and found that when such procedures are performed on those devout people, their brains automatically produce opium like chemicals that act as strong sedatives. So, they don’t feel any pain at all. It was strong faith in the divinity that has made their brain to produce such chemicals.
Not just in religious faith. Placebo effect can show up in many serious cases of illnesses which don’t have any effective remedy.
Parkinson’s disease is one debilitating illness caused by insufficient production of a neurotransmitter called dopamine in the brain. There are not many effective remedies for this condition. Scientists have achieved some success, by deep brain electrical stimulation. But such remedies involve planting electrodes inside the brain, which could have its own risk.
What is surprising is that in some individuals who are subjected to Placebo effect i.e. induction of high expectations driven by faith; the Dopamine production is seen to improve, without any surgical intervention!
Chronic depression is another case that is hard to manage. Scientists found that some brain structures in such individuals get altered when patients with chronic depression are subjected to placebo effect! These changes are seen to improve their depressed conditions.
If not completely cure, placebo effect can improve the efficacy of proper medical care with standard drugs. So, placebo effect can act as a supportive therapy in some cases.
How does one explain all this?
Our brains, or Minds rather, seem to have a capability to heal themselves. All that they need is a strong motivation, probably driven by deep rooted faith. That may be the reason why you find some specific doctor is more effective than some other, even though both are equally competent. You have more faith in the former than the latter.
All this does not mean that we can always cure ourselves by faith alone. If that were the case, we did not need all these hospitals; We could as well build more Churches and Temples or produce more Godmen!
The fact is that not all people are “placebo responsive”. Faith may or may not work for you. It depends on your metal makeup.
Also, not all ailments can be cured by placebo effect alone however much you believe in some God or Godman. A broken leg can probably not heal itself by faith. It needs a surgery.
But still, placebo effect driven by faith is an interesting capability of our minds to take care of themselves. So, have faith, but don’t forget to take your regular medicines 😉
A series revolving around Mind – Science of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Notions of reality, Mind modulation, Domains beyond Mind, and so on. © Dr. King 2019
you have treaded on insensitive grounds indeed!!
ReplyDeleteMost of what I write are based on hundreds of research papers.They are not my opinion.
DeleteKeep reading/listening, you probably would see other views as well.