THE PLACEBO EFFECT

Placebos are essential to the design of reliable clinical trials. Their surprising effect on participants has become the focus of many studies.

The placebo effect describes any psychological or physical effect that a placebo treatment has on an individual.

The power of this placebo effect is considered to be a psychological phenomenon.

Placebo interventions vary in strength depending on many factors. For instance, an injection causes a stronger placebo effect than a tablet. Two tablets work better than one, capsules are stronger than tablets, and larger pills produce greater reactions.

One review of multiple studies found that even the colour of pills made a difference to the placebo results.

There’s a really interesting study from the 1970s.

Researchers placed fifteen men on a strength training program and gave them a proposition.

Whoever makes the most strength gains in the next seven weeks will be given anabolic steroids for the final four weeks of the study.

So, after the first seven weeks of training were completed, the researchers selected six of the fifteen participants and gave them Dianabol––a steroid that increases muscle mass.

Except, they didn’t. What the participants thought was an anabolic steroid was actually a placebo pill.

The men now pumped up with fake roids, then completed another four weeks of training. When the researchers tested them at the end of the study, all six participants experienced unbelievable gains in strength. So, these participants gained crazy amounts of strength just because they thought they were taking anabolic steroids.

Several studies have shown time and time again how powerful the placebo effect can be.

For example, cyclists who are given a placebo but told it's caffeine, see an increase in their performance just like the group actually receiving caffeine. When patients receive a placebo but told it’s a painkiller, they report pain relief just as if they’d received the real thing.

But what’s really interesting is:

The placebo effect occurs even when people are told they’re receiving a placebo.

Say whaatt?

This is termed an “open-label placebo.”

But there’s a small catch: the open-label placebo only works if the participants believe it’ll work.

For example, when researchers give participants an open-label placebo but tell them they probably won’t feel anything because it’s just a placebo––participants don’t see an improvement in their performance.

In contrast, when researchers tell participants they’re receiving an open-label placebo and show them all the evidence supporting its positive effects, participants improve their performance.

As one participant said, “During the exercise, more or less halfway, I remembered the tablets that I had taken, I saw the colour and the shape of them in my head and imagined that they were making me more ‘powerful.’”

All of this goes to show the power of the mind. But more importantly, the power of the belief that you can do something.

Here’s a scenario for you;

Sue from next door is taking a multivitamin supplement targeted for the menopause.

There is nothing in that supplement that contains any active ingredients proven to help with menopausal symptoms, but Sue has a slight magnesium and vitamin D deficiency, so what it is helping with, is correcting that deficiency so it is making her feel better.

And because she feels better, she is eating better and exercising which in turn helps with her menopausal hot flushes.

So, it’s not necessarily the ingredients in the multivitamin that’s helping her hot flushes, but her overall well-being has improved and in turn her lifestyle is healthier and that’s what’s helping her menopausal symptoms.

However, Sue is adamant it's the menopause multivitamin that is making her symptoms better.

Now you wouldn’t go and tell Sue, it’s all a load of nonsense and to stop taking the tablet.

(A caveat to this is if you are spending 100s of pounds on useless potions and tonics then that may be a different story).

So, the next time you’re starting to doubt yourself, remember the power of the mind. You can achieve the goals you want to!

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