Xeno, thanks for all this great info. Yes, I meant antibodies in my original post. The thing is, I don't want to take Western meds even for the rare cold or cough, even over the counter stuff. But it seems I have a belief in taking something. So I use homeopathic tablets and or cough syrup. I look for the ones that are alcohol free. It makes sense to me that my believing in it would lead to a placebo effect. I guess I need to start by examining my belief that I need to take something in the first place. Maybe I'll eventually become a Christian Scientist (-:
Here's what this reminds me of in a round about way: Gangaji who teaches about non doer, etc. cautions that if one however believes that one is the doer, then one best do the action that one thinks is right. Like that, if I believe the remedies are gonna help, then it's probably best if I take them, given that they are generally reasonably priced. This whole business about beliefs is another area where I think the New Age screwed up in spite of good intentions. They made it unevolved to have beliefs. So then everybody tries not to have beliefs. Except that most people do have them. IMO it's better to simply acknowledge beliefs intelligently and aim to let them fall away on their own while not over indulging them. PS I bet a lot of people have believed in chicken soup. Then scientists found ingredients: one that's anti inflammatory and one that's an amino acid similar to an ingredient in over the counter cold meds. ________________________________ From: Xenophaneros Anartaxius <anartax...@yahoo.com> To: FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 2:30 PM Subject: [FairfieldLife] Re: Your fav MAV product? [to Share] --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Share Long <sharelong60@...> wrote: > > I use homeopathic remedies for colds and they work really well. The theory > is that very minute amounts of the cause of an ailment are put into the body > and then the body reacts by creating antidotes to that ailment. No Share, Judy's response was right here, but was being sarcastic. Vaccination creates *antibodies*. And *antidotes* are given to counteract the effect of poison. Homeopathic medicines are based on an unproved (and essentially disproved) theory that result in medications where the active ingredient is washed down the drain, and you buy the water that is left over. Most homeopathic medicines are water or water with a bit of alcohol and have no medically active ingredients (except the ones with alcohol). Most of these medications are placebos. So basically you are buying a sham. You can pay up to about $300 a quart for plain water in buying these so-called medicines. A placebo is a simulated or otherwise medically ineffectual treatment for a disease or other medical condition intended to deceive the recipient. Sometimes patients given a placebo treatment will have a perceived or actual improvement in a medical condition, a phenomenon commonly called the placebo effect. The placebo effect has known biological mechanisms. The placebo effect can be produced by inert tablets, by sham surgery, and by false information, such as when electrical stimulation is turned "off" in those with Parkinson's disease implanted brain electrodes. The placebo effect is highly variable in its magnitude and reliability and is typically strongest in measures of subjective symptoms (e.g., pain) and typically weak-to-nonexistent in objective measures of health points (e.g., blood pressure, infection clearance). A 2001 meta-analysis of clinical trials with placebo groups and no-treatment groups found no evidence for a placebo effect on objectively measured outcomes and possible small benefits in studies with continuous subjective outcomes (particularly pain). A 2004 follow-up analysis found similar results and increased evidence of bias in smaller trials that calls into question the apparent placebo effect on subjective outcomes. The placebo effect is related to the perceptions and expectations of the patient; if the substance is viewed as helpful, it can heal, but, if it is viewed as harmful, it can cause negative effects, which is known as the nocebo effect. In 1985, Irving Kirsch hypothesized that placebo effects are produced by the self-fulfilling effects of response expectancies, in which the belief that one will feel different leads a person to actually feel different. Because the placebo effect is based upon expectations and conditioning, the effect disappears if the patient is told that their expectations are unrealistic, or that the placebo intervention is ineffective. A conditioned pain reduction can be totally removed when its existence is explained. It has also been reported of subjects given placebos in a trial of anti-depressants, that once the trial was over and the patients who had been given placebos were told as much, they quickly deteriorated. Expectations can also do harm. When a patient anticipates a pill's possible side effects, he can suffer them even if the pill is fake. This 'nocebo' effect has been largely overlooked by researchers, clinicians and patients. In an article recently published in the journal Deutsche Ärzteblatt International a review of 31 studies demonstrated the nocebo effect. Doctors and nurses need to be more mindful of its dangers, particularly when informing patients about a treatment's potential complications. In short if you are told and believe a medically non-functional medication has positive effects and can heal, you may feel it does just that. On the other hand if you are told certain medications are poison, you may have the opposite experience, even if that medicine has beneficial medical effects, or no medical effects. Welcome to the alternative to medicine.
