Placebo

What is it?

The placebo effect is an improvement in symptoms that comes only from the expectation that a treatment will help. It is not imagination. It has measurable effects in the body.

What does the research say?

In Parkinson's, the placebo effect is especially strong. A well-known study from Canada, published in the journal Science in 2001, used brain scans to show that the expectation of a treatment alone releases dopamine in the brains of Parkinson's patients. In many studies that I describe on this website, motor function also improved clearly in the group that got a sham treatment, for example with TPS and with the light helmet.

My experience

My neurologist wrote that I am aware of my own suggestibility, and with it the placebo effect, and that I use it deliberately for myself. That is true. Every new method gives me hope, and hope releases strength.

At the same time, I try to check myself again and again with measurements and tests so that I do not fool myself. That is why I have regularly measured my mobility and my tremor since 2021. More on this under Analysis of the Doctors' Reports.

My conclusion

Confidence, calm, good relationships and the feeling that you can do something yourself are real forces. Use them. But do not let expensive promises dazzle you just because you are hoping.