A placebo is anything that seems to be a “real” medical treatment, but isn’t. It could be a pill, a shot, a spell, a potion; anything a person is told will make them feel better. What all placebos have in common is that they do not contain an active substance that demonstrably affects health.
But they can affect health. Placebos are effective in a large enough percentage of people that doctors routinely prescribe them to patients.
Placebos aren’t necessarily cheaper than ‘real’ medicine. This is because your brain is a snob that wants you to spend money on it to make it heal you. A sugar pill you are told costs 10c is not as effective as one you are told costs $5. Coloured, fancy looking placebo pills may be more effective than dowdy little white ones. If you get a top-of-the-range $25 placebo injection of saline solution, hot dang, your body will get onto that healing shit right away.
An explanation for why placebos work could be that, if you are sick or hurt, it takes a lot of energy to get better or heal. Taking a placebo could trick your brain into thinking your body is getting help with the healing process when it is not, so that it will put extra effort into healing, believing it is receiving energy from an outside source.
The immune system is affected by stress. If you are taking something that makes you feel like you’re doing something to help yourself, thus reducing stress, your immune system can be boosted as a response.
It gets weirder; the placebo effect can work even if you know it is a placebo. You may know that lighting an essential oil burner will not cure your cold, but it could make you feel better anyway.
Even more extraordinary, the placebo effect has increased over time. As medicines have become more effective, people’s expectations have also increased. A sugar pill taken today may be far more effective than one taken a hundred years ago.
The placebo effect is an example of how freakin’ weird our brains are. We all know that our brains mess us around from time to time. It’s nice to know you can sometimes trick your brain into healing you with something that should have no effect on your health.