Placebos & Nocebos: How Your Brain Heals and Hurts You

You've probably heard how some drugs and treatments make people feel better, even when they turn out to be fake. That's the placebo effect, but how does it work? And could the same effect backfire, causing your brain to make you feel sick when your body is not? Michael Aranda fills in for Hank and explains how these effects go beyond mere mind-over-matter.

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SOURCES
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/placebo-effect.htm *
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2009/10/15/the-placebo-effect-affects-pain-signalling-in-the-spine/
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528812.300-evolution-could-explain-the-placebo-effect.html#.UmA9mdIqiSo
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2011/09/the-dark-side-of-the-placebo-effect-when-intense-belief-kills/245065/
http://www.wired.com/medtech/drugs/magazine/17-09/ff_placebo_effect?currentPage=all
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/science/2012/07/what-is-the-nocebo-effect/
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/opinion/sunday/beware-the-nocebo-effect.html?_r=0
http://www.npr.org/2012/01/06/144794035/one-scholars-take-on-the-power-of-the-placebo - Kaptchuk*
http://www.placeboeffect.com/the-powerful-placebo/