Placebo

I am writing about the Radiolab episode called placebo. Sometimes what happens is that people will end up experiencing the effect of something when actually what happens is a trick of the mind. An example of this is that people who have Parkinson's disease are told that they will turn the stimulator on, when actually they do not turn the stimulator on and all the quivering stops. Another fact that was mentioned in the show is that even before the pain of getting shot starts to appear their thoughts decide what they think will happen. An example of this is a shopkeeper who gets shot will think that he will be known as a hero.

The next section of the show was about the role that the doctor has in the placebo effect. There was a patient who had a disease and the doctor hypnotized him and the disease which was congenital icthyosis went away on one arm. The doctor showed the person to a surgeon who was in a surgery. So they called a conference and the president of the royal society of medicine said that the condition was incurable that led him to not be so sure and not be able to cure any of the others that came to him who had the condition.

Another part of this radiolab episode was the fact that someone named Anton Mesmer believed that fluid flows through all things, which he named animal magnetism. His theory said that the fluid that was within all of all of us would get stuck or bunched up and that would cause disease. The person mention above would dress in a lilac suit and the person would have what he called a healing episode. The doctors lost business becuase of this animal magnetism so they protested to the king. Because of this protest they devised what is known as the first placebo test. In this test they said that one of the trees was magnetized and by the time he got to the third or fourth tree he was having a healing episode.

The final part was about faith healing and the christian religion.