• shneancy@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    you haven’t lost that magic - you know why placebo really works? it’s the context, the ritual of going to a “making you healthy” building, talking with a “i’ll make you healthy” person, and then receiving a “healthy making” pill. the ritual is what makes the magic of placebo happen, it’s what makes the belief that it’ll work easier.

    what home remedies/traditional cures have lost is the ritual of watching your grandmother, or in the older times the local wise woman, preparing your “cure”. A wise person giving you a drink or something and promising that’ll make you feel better is on the same level as a doctor giving you a pill.

    just buying over the counter meds without a doctor’s order, or just making your own health brew isn’t as effective

    also don’t forget that placebo work even when you know it’s placebo, that’s how powerful the ritual of it is. i don’t know if it’s some low magic, or if our subconscious has a deeper control over our body than we realise, but the fact is - it works on everyone

    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      5 days ago

      Seems like a bug in the simulation code… Someone got lazy and programmed it so the ritual does the healing, not the chemical itself. Big mistake.

    • reksas@sopuli.xyz
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      5 days ago

      there is a LOT going on in our heads and bodies that we are not consciously aware.

    • Wolf Link 🐺@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 days ago

      also don’t forget that placebo work even when you know it’s placebo

      This right here. I’ve had problems with pain relief medicine simply not working since I was a child. A couple years back I started drinking caraway seed tea whenever a headache was JUST going away, and even tho I know dang well that caraway seeds do jack sh*t against pain, my body now somehow associates the taste with “ok, headache time is over” and I can drink that stuff to MAKE headaches go away.

      100% placebo, 100% aware about it - still works.

      PS: why caraway seeds? Because it is the least likely “tea” you can be offered in everyday context. If I had used something as common as charmomile or green tea, I think the effect wouldn’t have had a lasting effect.