How a Pharmacist Believed Our Thoughts Could Shape Our Well-Being Long before positive affirmations became popular, Émile Coué championed a surprisingly simple idea: gentle, repeated suggestions may help us change how we feel and behave. Today, science offers some intriguing clues about why his method may work. A Century-Old Idea with a Modern Message What […]
Ever heard of Henry Beecher? He was an American doctor who discovered the placebo effect as a medic in World War II. When he ran out of morphine to ease the pain of wounded soldiers, he instead administered a mixture of salt and water but told them it was a drug to relieve pain. He reported that […]
Placebos are getting a fair amount of press lately. Yes, those “fake” remedies called “inert medications” that seem to be real treatments but aren’t are being talked about quite a bit. Recently, among others, health economist Austin Frakt wrote about them in “The Upshot” (“a New York Times website with analysis and data visualizations about politics, policy […]
