Eme Ashe

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Thursday, June 16, 2011

Tasty placebos

I laughed when I saw this. I'm such a psychology, scientific based evidence, double-blind research study, placebo effect nerd. The comic goes beautifully with the article I tweeted from CNN. Here is the article: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/16/are-antidepressants-glorified-placebos/

The article is interesting and worth a read (assuming the link still works by the time this post is read.) I have always been fascinated by placebos because to me they represent the pure beauty of psychology. Behold, the power of the mind. We can trick our mind to trick our brain to trick our bodies.

I recently started taking a multi-vitamin again. I tend to go through phases with vitamins. More accurately, when the bottle runs out I forget to buy more, then the pattern breaks, and then my healthy vitamin taking behavior is all shot to hell. 4, 5, 6...(8?) weeks ago I got a scrap on my hand. I'm not even sure it bled - it was just some skin scraped away from the other skin. (I hope that detailed, scientific description is appreciated.) Anyway, it is still healing. It has left a scar. What? Ugh, my body is old. I decided I must need more vitamins and thus purchased a bottle of multi-vitamins.

Do they work? Are they placebos? Can I will my body to heal itself more quickly? Would I get the same results if I just ate an orange tic-tac everyday?

Mmm. Orange tic-tacs. That would be a tasty placebo.

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