Wednesday, September 13, 2006 :::
For as much criticism as faith healing receives, science has long known that believing you're getting better aids in actually convalescence, but this this is still a bit wild:Proglumide works on the nervous system's opiate receptors, but unlike morphine, it is not a painkiller by itself: Secretly slipping the drug into the IV line of hospitalized patients has no effect at all. Instead, Benedetti found, proglumide boosts the brain's "expectation pathways," so the drug helps reduce pain if, and only if, it is associated with a placebo that creates an expectation of pain relief. Cool.
::: posted by dWj at 9:29 PM
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