A Bit Of Background
I have been familiar with the
Placebo effect for decades, but only recently I learnt about the
Nocebo
effect (in German language) from an article published online on 7/12/2012 by
my favorite home town newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The following
blog is not really related to the above mentioned article about the Nocebo
effect.
Faith Moves Mountains
We read in Matthew 17:20 of
the New Testament that faith as small as a mustard seed can make a mountain move
from here to there and that nothing will be impossible. Did the Bible
anticipate Placebo and Nocebo effects?
Besides faith, there is also
individual will power: A will to succeed in life; a will to be healthy etc.
A Conjecture About Senility And Its Causes
I am not trying here to
explain exhaustively all causes of senility. But I believe that some people as
they grow older are conditioned or resigned to experience the usual frailties
etc. that come with age, because this is supposed to happen with old age and we
are biologically programmed to deteriorate with age.
We all know from experience
that seniors have their moments. It’s considered normal by everyone.
It’s like a Placebo effect: I
am old now, thus I am expected to have memory lapses, unsteady gait, etc.
It’s like a Nocebo effect,
because I am old I should now be more absent minded, more napping, more prone
to fall etc. With age also comes anxiety
about age related frailties.
How do the trillions or so of
microorganisms in our gut react when we have Placebo or Nocebo effects later in
life.
