Imagine that you have, for example, a headache. The doctor gives you a pill and says it’s a reliable painkiller. You succumbed to the suggestion, and after that, relief really comes. It doesn’t matter what the doctor gave you — a real pill or a lump of sugar, one thing is clear: if you believe in the effectiveness of this medicine, the pain will go away. This is the placebo effect. The form of the proposed treatment can be any — from a small pill to operations and courses of therapy. Particularly susceptible people often become imbued with faith in healing only after seeing a doctor in a white coat. Whatever methods are used, traditional or modern, the placebo effect has tremendous power. Scientists pay considerable attention to this phenomenon, as it is an amazing evidence of the connection between the mind and the body: human beliefs directly affect the physiology of the body. Neurological research has shown truly amazing results. In one experiment, Italian scientist Fabrizio Benedetti, MD, decided to test what happens in the brain when taking a placebo. For some time, he gave the subjects sumatriptan, which stimulated growth hormone and suppressed cortisol production, and then replaced the drug with a placebo. A brain scan showed that the organ continued to stimulate the same substance on its own. He proved that a placebo can accurately reproduce the effect of a drug on the body. The human body is actually capable of producing many different biological substances by itself that can protect against pain, strengthen the immune system, improve appetite, sleep, pleasure, and more. However, due to stress or illness, the body may stop producing them, and a person will need medicine to resume normal functioning. But many scientists believe that it is possible to launch an internal program of natural recovery only through the efforts of the mind. In what way? After taking a real medicine for a long time, the human brain excites the same neural pathways, as if remembering what the drug does to the body and how the body gets better. Once there is already an experience of internal changes, then a conditioned reflex is developed for the effects of individual pills, pills, and injections. When taking a placebo, the same neural pathways are stimulated, as if the person had actually taken the medicine. Associative memory establishes a connection between the drug and hormonal changes in the body, after which the body is given a signal to produce certain chemicals that have previously been caused by taking real medicines. Nevertheless, an unconscious reaction will not start if a person does not believe in the effectiveness of the medicine. Most scientists agreed that the effectiveness of placebos is based primarily on positive thinking, a person’s desire to heal, a high degree of suggestibility, expectation of positive changes, and faith in recovery. If a person has a set of such characteristics, the medicine will work. And then the body does its own thing, launching a complex subconscious program from a chain of neurochemical reactions.

The idea that thoughts can affect the body originated a long time ago. The wonders of self-healing through human faith in rituals, potions, amulets, spells and other means were known to many ancient shamans, healers, healers and sorcerers. And they justifiably used this power in their ceremonies. The person was completely immersed in the ritual of treatment, and at this time his neurobiology came into play. Indian guru Sathya Sai Baba, whom followers consider the incarnation of the deity, became famous for his miraculous healing technique — he emitted sacred ashes from his palms, which, according to people, had the property of treating many physical and mental ailments. Even the English and French kings used the technique of laying hands on their subjects as a method of treatment. King Charles II of England, according to sources, performed such manipulation many thousands of times. With the development of medicine, it became known that the success of ancient shamans, Indian gurus and kings of the Middle Ages is primarily due to the placebo effect. Official medicine also resorted to those methods of treatment at one time, inefficiency (and even harmfulness) which has been proven to date: for example, to treat wounds with arsenic, bloodletting and taking snake oil. It can be said that doctors of the past simply did not have effective means to resist the disease. Undoubtedly, patients could recover after such procedures, but it was the placebo effect that had the healing effect. Historical facts show that doctors, realizing the power of the interaction of thoughts and body, quite often consciously resorted to the use of placebos. This is how the famous doctor Matvey Yakovlevich Mudrov treated patients, giving patients special powders, supposedly healing, which actually contained powdered chalk. And this was not a scam, but a conscious understanding of the effectiveness of a placebo. These remedies, combined with the doctor’s instructions, had a miraculous effect that led to complete healing from many diseases. According to Mudrov, a person expected action from a medicine and focused his attention not on the disease, but on recovery. The real official study of placebos began after the publication of a clinical review of 15 studies by Henry Beecher, who spoke about the enormous importance of placebos. During the Second World War, it was not uncommon for painkillers to run out. To prevent soldiers from dying from pain shock during the operation, Beecher injected saline instead of morphine. The patients calmed down and behaved as if they had received anesthesia during the operation. The expectation and faith of the patients proved to be incredibly powerful. So the front-line experience convinced the doctor of the power of a placebo. Subsequently, Beecher began to distinguish between two concepts — placebo and placebo effect. The former began to be understood as any imitation of the patient’s treatment without his knowledge, the latter as positive changes or complete recovery caused by taking a “pacifier”.

If a phenomenon has the power to heal, then there is a force that counteracts it — to harm. When consciousness has a positive effect on health, then they talk about the placebo effect. When consciousness is under the influence of negative suggestions, they talk about the nocebo effect. Nocebo demonstrates the negative side of suggestibility and can be harmful to health. The words that the doctor says, the manner of his behavior, as well as his own conviction that no medicine will help, can create such a defeatist mood that they completely kill the hope of healing. So, the doctor’s words that the patient has only six months to live can lead to the grave even earlier if he believes such a statement. In medicine, the nocebo effect is manifested, as a rule, during drug testing. Researchers talk about the side effects that the drug under test may have, and the subject begins to wait for them to appear (and, of course, waits). To see the effect of nocebo in action, scientists conducted an experiment in which they gave people with bronchial asthma steam inhalers. The subjects were told that it contained an irritant. As a result, 78% of people experienced respiratory tract spasms and asthma attacks. After that, they were given the same inhaler and informed that it contained a drug that alleviated the symptoms. Airway patency has been restored in each of 78%. The effects of curses, voodoo, and other magical practices are based solely on the nocebo effect. Scientists have investigated many cases where people, convinced that they had become objects of witchcraft, suddenly fell ill and died. A person’s faith can play tricks on them. Negative beliefs provoke negative changes in the body, research confirms this. But scientists are confident that by changing the nature of your thoughts, you can avoid many serious health problems.

The exact figure showing the proportion of patients who recovered due to the placebo effect has not been established for certain (it can range from 10 to 100%), but the total number is huge. In the same way, a figure showing the number of people suffering from the nocebo effect can be impressive. And this is quite logical: according to recent psychology research, about 70% of a person’s thoughts, beliefs, and beliefs are negative. Indeed, a lot of mental, emotional and physical problems seem to arise out of nowhere. Consciousness has great power, scientists confirm this. What a person thinks, experiences, feels, and believes undoubtedly reaches his body. All positive or negative attitudes in the head interact subtly with the body: they activate innumerable resources — they trigger certain natural molecules, which, in turn, cause corresponding effects. Research has shown that people with an optimistic mindset are more likely to respond to suggestions that medication can help. Thanks to their faith and positive expectations, they recover faster. Pessimists, on the contrary, tend to perceive the suggestion that the drug will only worsen their well-being. Therefore, they recover more slowly, or they get worse. Faith, hope, and determination can significantly affect the healing process, depending on how strong these feelings are. Although even small changes in one’s own thinking can already lead to small changes in the body and thereby improve overall well-being. Society sometimes forces people to look for ways to treat themselves from the outside, rejecting the power of the inner mind, but this only hinders natural recovery. Of course, this does not mean that you need to give up medications and medical services, but it is still important to realize that it is the person himself who plays the main role in the recovery process. By developing a sense of awareness, forming a positive attitude, expecting healing and believing in a positive result, he creates his own biochemistry and manages his own health.