In Episode 35, we looked at “Emotions, their physical effects, and alternative healing modalities,” and in other episodes we covered a variety of alternative and complementary healing practices. These topics prompt the question, “How do you know it’s not just the placebo affect?” In this episode, we’ll look at the answer.

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Happy New Year and welcome to the PEEP Podcast! I’m your host Nicolle Morock.

Early in December, I caught my first real cold in two years. The normal cold symptoms lasted about 9 days, but I’m one of those people with year-round sinus issues, so I ended up with a nagging cough through the rest of the month. On the 29^th, I was having a quiet dinner and catch-up night with my best friend, and every time we laughed, I coughed. I apologized for the annoyance dozens of times. She finally asked if I’d ever tried the trick of rubbing Vicks Vapor Rub on my feet and covering them with cotton socks at night. I answered, “Of course not. How could that even work?” She didn’t know, but she swore by it. I always believed it was an old wives’ tale, but that night I tried it. If nothing else, I figured my feet would smell good.

The next morning, I awoke without a cough. In fact, I coughed so little that day, I was sold!

Now that I look back, who am I, really, to balk at an old-fashioned remedy like that without trying it first? I should be more open to those things, but for whatever reason, that one just seemed too good to be true and far too easy to work. I still don’t know the mechanism, but I’m now a proponent of trying it. Was the positive result the placebo effect? Maybe.

With alternative and complementary medicine like naturopathy and modalities ranging from yoga and Reiki to the Emotion Code and Shamanic healing, it’s easy for skeptics to say that people who find relief through them are just experiencing the placebo effect, but what does that actually mean, and if it’s true, does it matter? Let’s think about this for a minute.

A placebo is a sort of fake treatment used in clinical research studies to determine if the real treatment actually works. Or at least, that was its initial purpose. Trial volunteers are split into at least two subgroups: one receives the real treatment and the other unknowingly receives the placebo. At the end of the trial, if the placebo group reported similar results as the group that received the treatment, that treatment would be considered a failure.

But things have changed over the years. Researchers have realized that a positive and similar outcome from a placebo doesn’t necessarily mean the real treatment failed. It often means there’s a mind-body connection at work in the placebo group.

In 2016, Mallika Marshall wrote in the Harvard Health blog about a doctor who is studying the placebo effect in a different light than most scientists who researched it previously. In a post titled, “A placebo can work even when you know it’s a placebo,” Dr. Ted J. Kaptchuk, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Harvard-wide Program in Placebo Studies and the Therapeutic Encounter (PiPS) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, has been studying placebos for more than 2 decades.

In that article, Marshall quoted Dr. Kaptchuk as saying that according to his research, “People can still get a placebo response, even though they know they are on a placebo. You don’t need deception or concealment for many conditions to get a significant and meaningful placebo effect.”

In fact, the doctor thinks “open-label placebos” could be a valuable treatment for people experiencing the types of symptoms that trial volunteers have to self-report. For example, migraine pain, fatigue and nausea resulting from cancer treatments, mood changes, etc. No, a placebo won’t cure cancer, but based on his research, it can certainly ease some of the symptoms related to radiation and chemotherapy.

In a follow-up article on the same Harvard Health blog in 2021 – five years later – titled “The Power of the Placebo Effect,” Dr. Kaptchuk reiterated his findings and elaborated a bit more on what a placebo treatment might look like. In a clinical study, the process of participation usually includes visits to the doctor, receiving a treatment or placebo, and reporting on how you feel afterward. There’s a ritual to it, and the mind knows the body is receiving attention. That seems to be the trigger for a positive placebo outcome.

Dr. Kaptchuk isn’t the only researcher to see the benefits of using a placebo as legitimate treatment. A 2022 article on the University of Michigan Health Lab website titled, “In studies and in real life, placebos have a powerful healing effect on the body and mind,” states, “according to psychologist and placebo expert Irving Kirsch, who has studied placebo effects for decades, a large part of what makes antidepressants helpful in alleviating depression is the placebo effect – in other words, the belief that the medication will be beneficial.”

The same article explains that the expectation of a positive outcome created by the process of taking the placebo activates the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Where have we heard that before? (Hint: in the episodes listed at the beginning of this one.) As many energy healers I’ve talked to say, “Where focus goes, energy flows.” Focus on a positive outcome, and more often than not, you’ll get one!

The 2021 Harvard Health article goes on to state that non-pill placebos may work just as well, including practicing self-care. Here’s another quote from Dr. Kaptchuk, "Engaging in the ritual of healthy living — eating right, exercising, yoga, quality social time, meditating — probably provides some of the key ingredients of a placebo effect."

Many of the healing modalities, including psi-type energy healing, that I’ve covered in this podcast could be considered acts of self-care. So, when a skeptic asks how I know if the improvement clients report isn’t just a placebo effect, my answer is simple: I don’t, but how much does it matter?

If the person receiving treatment feels better, reports reduced pain, stress, anxiety, etc., that’s a win! These modalities are not meant to replace modern medicine. They’re meant to work alongside it. So, I will never tell you to skip going to the doctor for a diagnosis, avoid chemo, or stop therapy, and just get a Reiki treatment. That would be dishonest and irresponsible.

Modern medicine is one of our greatest miracles. But miracles also come in other packages, so why not use every potential advantage you can get if you’re suffering?

Yoga, Reiki, and some other healing modalities have been proven to reduce self-reported symptoms in clinical studies. Other options haven’t been researched that way, yet, and when they eventually are, they may be proven just as reliable. But those studies could take a long time to happen because researching anything in a truly scientific manner is expensive, and most of the institutions with the kind of resources necessary shy away from studying anything that borders on psi. In the meantime, non-clinical data such as survey answers and stories from clients of alternative healers who experienced positive improvement of their symptoms shouldn’t be ignored. Might those stories just be results of the placebo effect? Of course, but good news is good news, hope is a powerful thing, and we need more of both in our world.

Thanks for listening! I’m putting the links to the three articles I quoted in the show notes in case you’d like to read them for yourself.

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