I don't think drugmakers are honestly worried about sugar pills.

They are literally making a killing on producing what ever it is they claim to be an effective counter ailment response. Not only are they greedy, but their response to medical competitors would be to make, "brand name", placebos.

Maybe a few hundred years ago, curing ailments was the quest to help people, but now it's about who has the rights to the formula, and the creation process.

Another quote from the article

Why are inert pills suddenly overwhelming promising new drugs and established medicines alike? The reasons are only just beginning to be understood. A network of independent researchers is doggedly uncovering the inner workings—and potential therapeutic applications—of the placebo effect. At the same time, drugmakers are realizing they need to fully understand the mechanisms behind it so they can design trials that differentiate more clearly between the beneficial effects of their products and the body's innate ability to heal itself. A special task force of the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health is seeking to stem the crisis by quietly undertaking one of the most ambitious data-sharing efforts in the history of the drug industry. After decades in the jungles of fringe science, the placebo effect has become the elephant in the boardroom.

Well this doesn't surprise me at all, and rather expected something along these lines to come about

My thoughts? It's related to the 100th monkey syndrome. Enough people have bene on these drugs for a long enough period of time that our brains have "figured out" what the drugs are purposed for, and have adapted to be able to do them themselves.


Investigate I would say with 90% certainty that is what has happened, and will keep on happening.

I think the answer is simple.. we teach people that pills are the magic answer.. so you take a pill when your sad and you suddenly brighten up because you think the pills making you feel better.. it's a mental kick in the arse to get you out the door.. even if it's only a sugar pill.

I knew a guy who took herbal supplements that told him he would grow muscle faster.. it really wasn't anything more than a "once a day" vitamin supplement, but he swore it helped.. of course the working out once a day was the real source of his success, the pill was the subconscious motivation.

It's all in the mind.

An interesting test would be having two groups both taking sugar pills. The first group is told practically nothing, just heres a pill to make you better.

The second group on the other hand, has to go through an extensive talk about the 'power of the pill'. I.E. Make up a bunch of information about how much money was spent,years of research, amazing success in previous clinical trials.

You tell someone you're giving them the best pill ever made, they will produce the results on their own, even versus other people who are taking the same pill but don't believe in it.

It's easy!
Illness are not what we think.

SNC

Originally posted by Jomina
Well this doesn't surprise me at all, and rather expected something along these lines to come about

My thoughts? It's related to the 100th monkey syndrome. Enough people have bene on these drugs for a long enough period of time that our brains have "figured out" what the drugs are purposed for, and have adapted to be able to do them themselves.


Investigate I would say with 90% certainty that is what has happened, and will keep on happening.

I agree...critical mass. Its just amazing to me that a thought can have such an affect on our physical reality. Its like the observer effect as well. I see science and spirituality getting closer and closer everyday.

Originally posted by king9072
It's all in the mind.

An interesting test would be having two groups both taking sugar pills. The first group is told practically nothing, just heres a pill to make you better.

The second group on the other hand, has to go through an extensive talk about the 'power of the pill'. I.E. Make up a bunch of information about how much money was spent,years of research, amazing success in previous clinical trials.

You tell someone you're giving them the best pill ever made, they will produce the results on their own, even versus other people who are taking the same pill but don't believe in it.

That would be interesting to see. I truly think that some of the more successful pills like fat burners, have an effect because of the graphics on the television commercials. It shows CGI of the pill breaking up and attacking all of the fat cells. The better the visuals and marketing are, the better the results.

People take the pill and envision this in their heads and poof! If you truly believe deep down you are going to loose weight...you will. Again, we are scratching the surface of what intention and focus can do.

Wouldn't it be funnier if we were to discover quantifiable proof that the human body is capable of repairing itself without the need for chemical interference? That the medical industry has either been 'led by the nose' or otherwise hoodwinked into practicing the art as if chemical science were what was lacking in the overall scheme of post-industrial life?

I don't know. Just seems like it would be funnier....

[edit on 24-8-2009 by Maxmars]

Wouldn't it be funny if sugar turned out to be the magic "drug"?

Big Pharma to Big Farming...