Placebo Effect

Belief is such a strangely straightforward concept. Although not very comprehendable by most, the concept works. More so, the blinder the belief the stronger the effects.


It's true, there is a reason people with a positive attitude do better in life. It's not just the attitude, it is a belief. A belief that good things will happen. A belief that one will be successful in any venture, when they begin. I'm sure that when Lord Krishna said "Only do your duty and bother not about the results" he certainly meant for us to work with a belief. I think, personally, that he meant "Believe that you shall succeed. Worry not about the result but about your work."

Quite simple, ain't it? You concentrate more on the work rather than the result and you obviously tend to do a better job. You do a good job of it and quite obviously, the result will be good. Again, my digression deviates.

Then there are other things, like the placebo effect. I'm sure we all have and know people who have their own "understanding" of symptoms and medicines. Some people cannot tolerate medicine. Some cannot live without them. And then ofcourse, there are those "normal" people who don't mind medicines "whenever required". Sorry, "too many quotes".

Vitamins are a simple example. I have serious doubts about the homeopathic pills that the doctors prescribe. All them, to me, seem like sugarcoated balls dipped in different flavours of alcohol. So you feel it when you eat them and then the energy released by more than normal direct intake of sugar. Can they really differentiate these "drugs"?

When a homeopathy doctor was asked what would happen if a child, by mistake, ate too many of those sweet candy-like pills, he just said "Give the child some strong decoction of coffee (black coffee) and the effect will just wear out". Hmmmm, what is it that people generally go to when they've had one drink too many?? Strong coffee?? No, really?

I must say, the homeopathy drugs do work. I have seen a lot of my family members "cured" of chronic diseases like dust allergy, mouth ulcers (which are, like, hereditary in my family) with these sweet pills. No special diets, no extra work required, nothing. Just pop a few pills everyday (and they're sweet) and you're fine.

I on the other hand believe that the body has capacities of self healing. Slow for some fast for some. I seem to have a recovery rate faster than others. At least compared to those people I know. So every time I'm unwell, I abstain from medication. Proper diet is the only thing required to get me back to good health. It just so happens that I have "developed" allergies for some things. Fruits - a very specific few.

I have recently discovered, not by any blood test or allergy test, that my system does not like raw and direct intakes of banana, mango, cheekoo and butterfruit. They seem to get outright rejected by my digestive system the moment I consume these. When told, my parents dismissed the idea immediately and said "you must've eaten something else". Maybe so I thought. Until the next time the same thing happened.

Then I was told that it is all psychological. I begged to disagree. I have been eating these all these years and never had any reaction. Why would I suddenly not want to have them? I even like the taste, for crying out loud. It was only after I had a very uncomfortable night in Hyderabad after eating butter fruit and my mom was scared out of her wits (we were alone in a different city, apparently), that they now have come to terms with it and accept that there is a possibility for such things to happen.

15 minutes was all it took. That retching feeling in my stomach was all to familiar. 45 mins later I was fine. Ofcourse, I had to oust the intruders in my system first. This, I can very confidently say, is not a Placebo Effect.