“You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.  You take the red pill, you stay in wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.  Remember, all I’m offering is the truth, nothing more.”  Morpheus (The Matrix)

Which pill would you choose?  The blue pill or the red pill?  The pharmaceutical drug or the sugar pill?

“What is truth?” Pilate asked.  (John 18:38a; NLT)

The Placebo Effect — If you’re like most of us, that very phrase smacks of negativity and disdain.  We’ve long had it drummed into our minds that only medicine has any lasting effect and anything less that a pharmaceutical drug is a waste of time, money, and even hope.

Let’s turn to the highly reliable Wikipedia for some help on this one.  The first sentence in the definition of placebo is, “A placebo is a sham medical intervention.”  Note the use of the word “sham.”  It absolutely drips with ugliness and negativity.  Nothing good could ever be called a sham, unless it was used to cover a pillow, right?  So you don’t really have to read much further to sense the attitude of the author(s) toward placebos.

Yet, and get this…less than two years ago, the media was writing stories about a about a ground breaking clinical study on the use of placebos. (Time Magazine, Bloomberg.com, et al.). Almost fifty percent of the doctors in the survey reported prescribing placebos over the previous year. When asked why they would prescribe a placebo to a patient, ninety-six percent of the doctors doing so said they believed they would see a clinical, therapeutic result after prescribing a placebo. In other words, because their patients believed they would feel relief after taking a sugar pill, their bodies actually felt relief. Their patients’ bodies actually produced a healing effect based upon their belief that the placebo would work.

Hmmmm…is there an elephant in the room?  Do you suppose any of that group of half of the doctors studied would publicly admit to using a “sham medical intervention?”  Seems like that would invite a review board to investigate their worthiness to practice medicine.

Let me ask you a question — understanding the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs, if you had the choice between a drug and a harmless sugar pill that produced the same result, which would you choose?  I don’t even have to think twice about than one; it’s a classic “no-brainer” in my book.  (I suppose you might think I have no brains if I chose the sugar pill, but to each his own.)

Fast forward a couple of years to an article that came out just two weeks ago this year titled, “Placebo Effect Regularly Beats Pharmaceutical Drugs.”  (I’ve included that article as today’s link.)  Fascinating article.  It says, “The fact that an increasing number of medications are unable to beat sugar pills has thrown the industry into crisis and that half of all drugs that fail in late-stage trials drop out because of their inability to beat sugar pills.”

I love the next thought from the article, “It’s interesting because placebo pills are often sugar pills, and sugar is known to depress the immune system for hours after it’s taken. So, in truth, drug companies are having a difficult time competing against an immune system depressant.”  I’ll leave the rest of the article for you to digest.

What does all this tell us about the power of our brain and our beliefs?  What’s really going on here?  Sounds like some interesting questions for a couple of future Daily Grams. 

Pass the sugar, please.

Prayer Power:
Father, we ask for Your guidance as we make choices about our medical care.

Link of the Day
Placebo Effect Regularly Beats Pharmaceutical Drugs

Blessings on you as you ponder the power of what you believe.

Photo by e-magic