What is the placebo effect and how does it relate to stress ...

[james0929]

What is the placebo effect and how does it relate to stress management?

Question 2

Have you, or anyone you know, ever made it through a stressful exam period and then gotten sick? Explain this phenomenon through the pertinent stress hormones.

[ecox1012]

Answer to Question 1

The placebo effect is a phenomenon whereby an inactive substance or treatment is used to determine how the power of suggestion affects the psychology, physiology, or biochemistry of experimental participants. The placebo effect is created by a person's belief that he or she will benefit from an intervention. A prominent review study of pain treatments and the placebo effect concluded that the quality of the interaction between the patient and the physician can be extremely influential in patient outcomes and in some cases, perhaps many cases, patient and provider expectations and interactions may be more important than the specific treatments. The placebo effect is an important example of the power of our thoughts and emotions to have a positive impact on health.

Answer to Question 2

Animal research may explain why people often get through acute stress but fall ill afterward. Stress unleashes adrenaline-like hormones first, and these stimulate the immune system. Then the body releases cortisol, a hormone that battles inflammation but weakens immunity. For a while, both hormones are going full steam ahead. When the stress ends, the adrenaline hormones shut down first, leaving hormones that suppress immunity to hang around alone, and in these few days illness may take hold. Cortisol in particular lingers in the body and weakens the body's immune response.