Ah-Choo! by Jennifer Ackerman

Author:Jennifer Ackerman [ACKERMAN, JENNIFER]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HEA000000
ISBN: 9780446574013
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2010-09-01T16:00:00+00:00

If the makers of certain natural cold remedies such as Airborne and Zicam put an excessively sunny spin on their product, it’s hardly surprising. Why should we expect truth in cold remedy advertising any more than honesty in parenthood? Maybe the manufacturers really do believe in their own products the way an overappreciative parent believes in the extraordinary talents of her child. Perhaps the expectation of effective performance brings it about: as long as customers believe in a product, it may help them—whether or not it really works.

Never underestimate the power of placebo, says Ron Eccles of the Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University in Wales. When people believe they are receiving treatment, their symptoms often fade miraculously, even if what they’re taking is a completely inert substance—a result of the patient’s confidence in the medicine or in the physician who prescribes it. This is not to say that the symptoms are “just” a product of the mind, but rather that the mind can produce truly beneficial effects. Placebos can make warts go away and diminish symptoms of asthma, depression, sciatica, and even cancer. One study found that pregnant women who believed they were taking an antiemetic for morning sickness felt less nauseous and their stomachs heaved less. In fact, they had been given a nausea-producing drug, but the placebo effect had negated its impact.

“I’m addicted to placebos,” Steven Wright’s joke goes. “I could quit but it wouldn’t matter.”

Placebo can make you feel better even if you aren’t actually getting better. The word comes from the Latin for “I shall please” and first appeared in the Middle Ages. Chaucer used it to describe insincere flattery that can nonetheless be consoling. Thomas Jefferson was well aware of the use of placebo by doctors of his time. “One of the most successful physicians I have ever known has assured me that he used more bread pills, drops of colored water, and powders of hickory ashes, than of all other medicines put together,” he wrote. At the turn of the century, Richard Cabot of the Harvard Medical School admitted he “was brought up, as I suppose every physician is, to use placebo, bread pills, water subcutaneously, and other devices.”

Uncomfortable, invasive, or painful interventions tend to make for greater placebo effects. So do brand names and higher prices. One study reported that a placebo costing $2.50 worked better than one that cost $0.10. Pill size and color can also alter the effect. People find that red or orange pills are stimulating and blue ones have a more sedative or depressant effect. (Except in Italian men, for whom blue pills cause insomnia, according to one study—perhaps, the authors speculate, because of its link with the Sky Blues, the dynamic Azzurri football team.) There’s even speculation that the linguistic aspects of drug names are influential, for instance, “Viagra,” with its echo of words such as “vigor” and “Niagara.” It’s all about expectations of benefit.

Treatments for the common cold are no exception. As early as 1933, Harold

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