{"id":285,"date":"2009-10-02T19:50:00","date_gmt":"2009-10-02T19:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/10\/placebos-are-getting-better\/"},"modified":"2009-10-02T19:50:00","modified_gmt":"2009-10-02T19:50:00","slug":"placebos-are-getting-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/10\/placebos-are-getting-better.html","title":{"rendered":"Placebos are Getting Better"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>I wonder just how far this goes \u2013 the placebo effect that is, the idea that I think I\u2019m doing something to get better and I actually do, even if it\u2019s just taking a sugar pill.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Faith. Belief. Health.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Obviously it can\u2019t be taken too far. We all hear of tragic consequences of people just believing an illness will go away, or trusting in God to fix this or that major ailment. Stuff, things, people, and medicine <span style=\"font-style: italic\">do <\/span>work. <span style=\"font-weight: bold\"> But, as Colbert reports below, perhaps our <\/span><span style=\"font-style: italic;font-weight: bold\">faith in them<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: bold\"> has exceeded the reality of what they (in this case pills) can actually do<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>Just as people often oscillate between a fetishistic trust in \u2018experts\u2019 and a rabid disdain for all things learned and intellectual, we can range from faith in all modern medicine to complete distrust.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">A middle way, of course, should be the course we try to steer<\/span>. We have a self-directed duty of understanding what we put in our bodies, even in this age of complexity. A big part of that is learning who to trust \u2013 but even then being open to dissenting views. We must accept our own fallibility and know that our knowledge of today may be superseded by the data of tomorrow.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Meditate. <\/span>Somehow, calm your busy mind. So far all of the studies I\u2019ve seen show this to be good for your health, especially mental\/emotional health.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: bold\">Laugh.<\/span> This too is pretty universally lauded as a health-producing or enhancing activity. So, for a laugh or two, here\u2019s our friend, Steven Colbert:<\/p>\n<table width=\"360\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr valign=\"middle\">\n<td style=\"padding: 2px 1px 0px 5px\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">The Colbert Report<\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"padding: 2px 5px 0px;text-align: right;font-weight: bold\">Mon \u2013 Thurs 11:30pm \/ 10:30c<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 14px\" valign=\"middle\">\n<td style=\"padding: 2px 1px 0px 5px\" colspan=\"2\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/the-colbert-report-videos\/250604\/september-29-2009\/cheating-death---snus---placebo-effect\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Cheating Death \u2013 Snus &amp; Placebo Effect<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"middle\">\n<td colspan=\"2\" style=\"padding: 2px 5px 0px;overflow: hidden;width: 360px;text-align: right\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">www.colbertnation.com<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr valign=\"middle\">\n<td style=\"padding: 0px\" colspan=\"2\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr style=\"height: 18px\" valign=\"middle\">\n<td style=\"padding: 0px\" colspan=\"2\">\n<table style=\"margin: 0px;text-align: center\" width=\"100%\" cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr valign=\"middle\">\n<td style=\"padding: 3px;width: 33%\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.comedycentral.com\/colbertreport\/full-episodes\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Colbert Report Full Episodes<\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"padding: 3px;width: 33%\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.indecisionforever.com\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Political Humor<\/a><\/td>\n<td style=\"padding: 3px;width: 33%\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.colbertnation.com\/the-colbert-report-videos\/250350\/september-23-2009\/capitalism-s-enemy---michael-moore\" class=\" decorated-link\" rel=\"nofollow\">Michael Moore<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div class=\"blogger-post-footer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7907151-1451833980237689136?l=americanbuddhist.blogspot.com\" alt=\"\"><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I wonder just how far this goes \u2013 the placebo effect that is, the idea that I think I\u2019m doing something to get better and I actually do, even if it\u2019s just taking a sugar pill. Faith. Belief. Health. Obviously it can\u2019t be taken too far. We all hear of tragic consequences of people just [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Placebos are Getting Better<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I wonder just how far this goes - the placebo effect that is, the idea that I think I&#039;m doing something to get better and I actually do, even if it&#039;s just\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/10\/placebos-are-getting-better.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Placebos are Getting Better\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I wonder just how far this goes - the placebo effect that is, the idea that I think I&#039;m doing something to get better and I actually do, even if it&#039;s just\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/10\/placebos-are-getting-better.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Buddhist Perspectives\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-10-02T19:50:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/7907151-1451833980237689136?l=americanbuddhist.blogspot.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justin Whitaker\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/10\/placebos-are-getting-better.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/10\/placebos-are-getting-better.html\",\"name\":\"Placebos are Getting Better\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-10-02T19:50:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-10-02T19:50:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\"},\"description\":\"I wonder just how far this goes - the placebo effect that is, the idea that I think I'm doing something to get better and I actually do, even if it's just\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/10\/placebos-are-getting-better.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/10\/placebos-are-getting-better.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2009\/10\/placebos-are-getting-better.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Placebos are Getting Better\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/\",\"name\":\"American Buddhist Perspectives\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/abfb8f851f671638c4c7536b963f9da9\",\"name\":\"Justin Whitaker\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/817b6fba8ae056aaff4f9bdc84347d72?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Justin Whitaker\"},\"description\":\"I am an almost-life-long Montanan; 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