Placebo Effect Produces Real Painkillers (26 August 2005)
“A study from the University of Michigan (U-M) has provided the first direct evidence that endorphins
- the brain's own pain-fighting chemicals - do play a role in the phenomenon known as the placebo effect.
It appears that just thinking that a medicine will relieve pain is enough to prompt the brain to release
these natural painkillers and that this response does indeed correspond with a reduction in feelings of pain.
Previous studies have shown that the brain reacts physically when a person is given a sham pain treatment, but
the new study is the first to pinpoint a specific brain chemistry mechanism for a pain-related placebo effect.”
It further states:
"This deals another serious blow to the idea that the placebo effect is a purely psychological, not physical,
phenomenon," says the study's lead author Jon-Kar Zubieta. "We were able to see that the endorphin system
was activated in pain-related areas of the brain, and that activity increased when someone was told they were
receiving a medicine to ease their pain. They then reported feeling less pain. The mind-body connection is quite clear."
Source: Aug, 2005
Human consciousness / mind and the brain's neural network with its related nervous system appear to be
interdependent and interactive processes and states that to this day are virtually unexplored and unexplained
as to their relationships, functions and processes, creating a gap of misunderstanding and verification. This is often
referred to as the mind-body dichotomy (or problem).
If, and how physical neuronal biochemical substances and processes create coherent informational processes that become
emergent conscious experiences, mental characteristics, intentions etc. and how, in reverse direction, conscious informational
processes and states (beliefs, intentions, desires, placebo response, fear, stress etc), affect the biochemical substance of the
physical bodyis not fully understood. Information, although not always seemingly meaningful, can be casual.
What can best be referred to as abstract "forces of human intelligence" are aspects of information that take the form of intentional
mental characteristics (causal qualities) ultimately causing human mental and physical behavioral phenomena.
Source