My last discussion topic for a while - promise!
I am a little science and research nurd can’t help it!
One of the biggest differences between medical and natural-medicine is the elimination or use of the placebo effect. Building on the GI bacterial issues and the use of dead pro-biotics, there are a large group that this will help even though they are taking nothing, but believe they are!
Western medicine tries to completely eliminate the Placebo effect in clinical studies. The blind study is when patients do not know if they are taking a placebo or trial medication while double blind is when not even the team giving out meds know which they are giving.
Still, there will a significant group who got the placebo that will have the positive results of the meds every time. In fact for most anti-depressant studies, there is often no real difference between the placebo and medicated groups for mildly depressed people! Hence the power of the placebo effect…
There are 2 great documentaries on this and fascinating for a lazy evening, Sunday or afternoon.
You tube - Placebo: cracking the code (is a little dramatic but great in presenting sensational cases)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QvbQnMvhQFw
The other is a Canadian production on CBC:
Go to CBC video App or start at CBC.ca then Nature of Things:
Brain Magic: The Power of Placebos
Also- Check out the CBC TV app in Apple’s iTunes store: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/cbc-tv/id422191503?mt=8&ls=1
Enjoy
Ruby