Mind and Body Over Drugs?
Yes! Research has been talking about the placebo effect for years. It has either been viewed as something neutral or something very powerful. The later is correct.
- the mind determines the effectiveness of many drugs, not the chemicals in the drug
- drug trials are based on the expectation that drugs are effective for a particular issue
- the presence of side-effects negates the blinding of patients
- the mind then participates in expecting beneficial results
- randomized clinical trials are invalid
Patients are led to believe that a particular drug will help their problem. When they are recruited to participate in a drug trial they know what benefit they should receive from the drug.
When they start taking the pill, the patient knows it is the drug by the presence of side-effects. As they believe that the drug will help their symptoms, the mind then contributes to the benefit of this particular treatment.
Randomized clinical trials are invalid because of the expectation that was created in the mind of the patient from the beginning. There is no way to know if the observed benefits of a drug are due to the patient’s belief or the actual chemicals in the drug itself.
The only way around this is to sign people up for a trial of a drug with no information about what it is treating. Then various physiological signs must be tracked. Only then can you get a more realistic picture of the true effect of the chemical on the body.
As a physician it is truly shocking how much of the time we have no idea what the true mechanism of action of a drug actually is. We are told it helps a particular condition or symptoms, but studies cannot explain exactly why.
The interaction of the mind and body is truly more important than the drugs themselves.
Read more in an excellent article at NaturalNews.com: “Nearly all drug trials scientifically invalid due to the influence of the mind”
To Your Vibrant Health!
Veronica Tilden, DO
