Fascinating read

[Tom]

http://space.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18524911.600

Sorry to be spamming the board with links but this one is a pretty amazing read.

 

[Ch3tan]

Sorry to be spamming the board with links but this one is a pretty amazing read.

Now you're sorry?

edit/ intresting link though

 

[Louster]

There's an interesting theory about the placebo effect referenced in this book I'm reading: "Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenom", Daniel Dennett.

But why should human beings be susceptible to the placebo effect in the first place? Is this a unique adaptation (depending on language and culture), or are related effects discernible in other species? This is a topic of current research and controversy. One of the most ingenious hypotheses under discussion is Nicholas Humphrey's (2002) "economic resource management" hypothesis. The body has many resources to cure its own ailments: pain to discourage activity that can further damage an injury, fevers to combat infection, vomiting to rid the digestive system of toxins, and immune responses, to mention the most powerful. These are all effective but costly; overuse, or premature use, by the body could actually end up harming the body more than helping. (Full-scale immune responses are particularly costly, and only the healthiest animals can maintain a fully equipped army of antibodies.) When should a body spare no expense in hopes of a quick cure? Only when it is safe to do so, or when help is just around the corner. Otherwise, it might be more prudent for the body to be stingy with its costly self-treatments. The placebo effect, according to this hypothesis, is a releasing trigger, telling the body to pull out all the stops because there is hope. In other species, the hope variable is presumably tuned to whatever information the animal can glean from its current surroundings (is it safe in its den, or in the middle of its herd, and is there plenty of food around?); in us, the hope variable can be manipulated by authoritative figures. These are questions worth further investigation.