Letters to the Editor
-
Symptoms vs illness
I find the placebo effect interesting, since it shows people can give themselves symptoms of illness like, diarrhea, vomiting, and headaches. I have never heard of the placebo effect actually giving a person an illness. But it begs the question can the placebo effect provide symptoms of healthy well being, even if we are ill?
Which leads me to people being healed by Christian faith healers. Has there been studies on these events? Basic questions I have are: Were they faked, were they actually medically diagnosed before being healed, was the healing permanent or just the result of temporary euphoria?
I had a personal experience with a not serious but quality of life impacting chronic illness. At one point after an especially painful and humiliating test to determine the cause, the illness just went away. At the time I thought the driver to my "cure" was just me being so sick of the medical establishment that I made myself well rather than take another God-damn test or read another goddamn article on the illness, new-age or otherwise. What really happened, I don't know, except something that I suffered with for years went away. Suddenly.
So the only thing I know for sure is that there is a lot we do not know except for this.
There is no positive thought or faith anywhere that will prevent our physical death.