There have been many experiments done to determine if placebo's given to patients actually work. What are your takes on placebo's and how effective do you think they really are?
135714
My take is this. More of our health than we realize, is mental. I believe that it is possible (not saying we are capable of it yet, especially with the more stubborn/strong health problems) to think any condition away. The human brain is a mysteriously powerful organ, and the human body has the capability to fight off just about anything. And this is how placebos work. You think the problem is going to go away, so it does.
183313
I am a personal trainer and research supplements all the time.  I think you'll be hard-pressed to find any success stories from using it by itself.  I know of no one that has had success taking it.  Don't waste your money.
598127
Some do, some don't. I took all kinds of meds. It wasn't until I learned how to think properly that I started to get better. See my "Antidepressant That Works" webpage for my story: http://www.geocities.com/seabulls69/AntidepressantThatWorks.html
35892
This is a good question.  I can only tell you from my experience of taking this type drug for so long that for me it is worth it.  \n\nIt works great for me.  There are side effects but for me it's better then going with out it.
232402
Aspirin was a herbal medicine until the active ingredient was isolated and properly tested.\nThis is the major problem with the plethora of herbal remedies being promoted and sold at the moment - hardly any of them have been properly tested or found scientifically to have any helpful effect.\nHerbal company profits are not used to fund the research which says something about the companies and probably a lot about the products.\nSome studies that have been done found that there was not even a placebo effect!\nHerbal remedies cannot have a place in modern medicine until they are properly tested and the dosage of the active ingredient determined.\nHave a look here:
664904
Placebo Effect -  When a person is given a fake medicine, a medicine that doesn't really do anything to help them. But because they are given the medicine they 'think' it will make them better, so they actually do get better.\n\nDomino Effect - When one thing causes another thing to happen, which causes another thing to happen, which causes another thing to happen, which causes another thing to happen, which causes another....
191722
There is no clinical, double-blind, peer reviewed reseach to suggest it really works so I would say don't use it!
182315
It can go far beyond that, as well.  If a study wasn't set up correctly, then there can BE no 'correct' interpretation.  This is especially common in drug testing.  Often companies are in such a hurry to get a new drug on the shelf that they don't take all the precautions in setting up their studies that they probably should.  For example, they don't conduct tests on as many people as they should, or they inadvertantly bias their data by not taking a random sample.  The problem usually stems from the fact that a doctor is the one responsible for running the tests, not a statistician.
434746
Not personally, but the hospital i work at works extensively with them.  I would have no worries or second thoughts about entering one of their trials if that was my situation.  We actually use a few of their protocols here.  Hope that helps a little.  :)
29640
Look up bio-feedback.  There is some fairly reliable documentation that it does work for migraines, as well as other kinds of pain.  There is also hypnosis.  Again, it seems to work for some.\n\nAt this day and age there are some new perscription stuff out for migraines.  Not the painkillers, these work differently and do a wonderful job of it without the side effects of others.
426738
I, myself, find that it's interesting they're allowed to call it a "cure" for cancer.  According to the article below, in major studies, Herceptin only had a 0.6% reduction rate for breast cancer deaths.  Yet if someone tries to claim that a naturally-occurring herb is a "cure for cancer," they get fined by the pharmaceutical companies and run out of the country.\n\nThis sums up my feelings on the situation pretty well...\n\n"Herceptin proponents claim clinical trials show a 46 percent decrease in recurring breast cancer when the drug is prescribed to late-stage breast cancer patients. That number, of course, is pure marketing propaganda and statistical spin. Consider the facts: One of the main studies being cited in support of Herceptin saw 34 deaths in the control group (2.0% of the participants) and 23 deaths (1.4%) in the group treated with Herceptin. This translates in a 0.6% absolute reduction in deaths. Hardly a miracle, huh? \n\nBut that doesn't stop drug proponents from hailing Herceptin as a bonafide miracle. As Ralph W. Moss explained in a recent critical commentary published in New Scientist magazine (March 4, 2006), one of the main cheerleaders for Herceptin is none other than Hortobagyi, a paid consultant of Genentech, who received somewhere between $10,000 and $100,000 from the drug company. He's one of the proponents who calls Herceptin a "cure." He probably even does it with a straight face. \n\nIs a 0.6% reduction in deaths really such a big deal? The fact is that getting some regular sunshine and engaging in regular physical exercise has a far greater success rate of reducing the risk of recurring breast cancer. In other words, something you can do absolutely free of charge is better than the most advanced, most miraculous breakthrough the pharmaceutical industry has come up with in 30 years."\n\nFrom newstarget.com - read more here: http://www.newstarget.com/019313.html
528428
You can rely on the placebo effect. This one person once posted on the web that to imagine more blood flowing to them. Some people have said it works. I think it's all placebo effect.
646370
I find that accupuncture is a niche therapy. Some of my patients love it and say it's a life saver for them, others say it didn't do a darn thing. There just doesn't seem to be a middle ground. I personally have not attempted accupuncture but would not rule it out as a possible form of therapy. All I can say is try it, if it works for you, great.
448956
Is that for real? Either that or patients should only be allowed to smoke outside as they are everywhere else. I'm sorry though, if that is for real, he helped a lot of people I know through his books. Bless his soul.
511796
they are all part of a survey technique to improve the chances of getting a complete result from a sample.\nRandomized is when you randomly select the people or subjects that will take part in your survey. The subjects chosen are from a big population that you want to know about, and the subjects that you randomly picked are called a sample.\nFor double-blind, imagine a company wants to test their new wine, so they invited some professional wine drinker to test out many different unlabeled wines along with their new wine, and have the wine drinker describe the taste of each wine. A person will accompany the drinkers and present the different wines to them, but that person will not know which wine is which, so this prevents that person from giving hints to the drinkers and influence their responses. This is a double-blind technique in which the person who accompanies the subjects and helps the subjects will now know what is being tested.\nPlacebo-controlled clinical trial is when you tests if a new pill or medical treatment is working or not. For example, a company develops a new pill to lower the acid level of the stomach. To test it out, they will assign some doctors to give to their patients who suffer from this a pill. Half of the doctors will receive the new pill that the company developed, while the other half will receive a fake pill, or also called a placebo, that tastes the same as the new pill except it doesn't do anything to cure the illness. Taking the placebo pill would make the patients believe that they are taking something that will cure them, thus making them feel better. If the results were that the number of people who were cured by the placebo the same as the ones who were cured by the new pill, then that means that the new pill would not be any better than a placebo.
209131
Others don't use cinnamon routinely because the research looking at cinnamon administration to help control blood sugars is mixed.  Studies in rats have shown a potential benefit.  However, some studies in humans have shown an improvement and some have not.  There are no randomized, placebo-controlled trials; therefore in the trials that did show a difference, it is impossible to know how much can be attributed to placebo effect.  In addition, studies need to be large enough to prove that the apparent benefit isn't just due to chance.  Your sugar has improved, but do we know it was from the cinnamon?  Who can say?  Maybe your overall diet improved during that time; or maybe you started exercising more; or maybe the numbers you got were both within the normal range of fluctuation.  Everybody's fasting glucose will vary from one day to the next.  Still, I am an advocate of alternative medicines and am interested to see if any good trials ever come out to show one way or another if cinnamon can truly improve blood sugars.  On the other hand, there are many studies which show proven benefit for other treatments such as exercise, weight loss, and oral drugs such as metformin.
471452
That depends on several factors:\n1. The placebo effect (your thoughts, emotions and beliefs)\n2. Nutrition\nIt basically breaks down to this.. the human body is a SELF healing mechanism, when respected. Focus on the fact that you're ALREADY healed and healthy, and it will happen that much quicker. Remove the artificial sweeteners, trans fats, pesticides, lifeless foods, harmful, synthetic, processed, chemical "foods", and replace them with nutrient rich live organic whole foods (fruits, veggies, nuts, water, etc) and the body will do some amazingly miraculous things.