I agree that in the absence of bacterial and other infections which are som= etimes fatal or become chronic (stomach ulcers caused by bacteria for examp= le), very often, if not usually, the body has an amazing ability to heal it= self. That's the line about the cold going away in 7 days if treated and a= week if not treated. The immune system is amazing in what it can do. And= what it can overdo in autoimmune diseases and the like, including causing = an inflammatory response from too much fat on the body. There was a study a few years ago where people with knee problems had "ghos= t" surgery, i.e., they were convinced they had surgery (scar, etc.) when in= fact they had not. Those people improved just as much as the ones who had= actual surgery. Likewise with Parkinson's Disease. These people's proble= ms were intractable before the "surgeries". Newsweek did an entire issue o= n the mind/body connection a few months ago. =20 While I don't dispute these authors' findings, I'm sure if they're real sci= entists they'd be the first to say that their results have to be replicated= and peer reviewed before they enter the mainstream as fact. Andy Amago -----Original Message----- From: Andreas Ramos <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Nov 28, 2004 6:49 PM To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The flu > Colds and other sickness relief is often a result of the > placebo effect. The placebo effect is so powerful and so > quantitatively measurable that people with Parkinson's disease and > knee problems have reported improvement of symptoms from placebo > treatments. It might be why chicken soup "works". There is no placebo effect. Researchers put patients with diseases in three groups: Group 1 got treatme= nt, Group 2 got a=20 placebo, and Group 3 got nothing. Group 2 and 3 had the same results (some got better, some got sicker). The = placebo had no=20 effect. The explanation is that if you get sick, most likely, you'll get better ver= y soon anyway.=20 Most people shake off most illnesses anyway, REGARDLESS of what they do (ta= ke chicken soup,=20 vitamin C, dance with serpents, pray to their local sun god, a shot of whis= key, etc.) or do=20 nothing about it at all. See the study by A. Hr=F3bjartsson & P. C. G=F6tzsche, 2001 on the placebo = effect. "A. Hr=F3bjartsson & P. C. G=F6tzsche found that in many studies where a co= ntrol group was used=20 that did not get any treatment at all, the effects in the no-treatment grou= p were almost=20 equal to the effects in the placebo group. Most studies however only use a = placebo group as=20 control. The authors concluded that the placebo effect is overrated, and th= at studies in the=20 future should have a no-treatment group when possible, to make sure that ef= fects would not=20 be attributed to a placebo effect while they are totally natural effects th= at would have=20 occurred anyway. In a follow-up study (A. Hr=F3bjartsson & P. C. G=F6tzsche= , 2004) the same=20 authors were able to confirm their previous results and concluded: "We foun= d no evidence of=20 a generally large effect of placebo interventions. A possible small effect = on=20 patient-reported continuous outcomes, especially pain, could not be clearly= distinguished=20 from bias". yrs, andreas www.andreas.com=20 ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html