Released on = February 16, 2007, 5:10 am

Press Release Author = Dr Laurence Magne

Industry = Healthcare

Press Release Summary = From the desk of Dr Magne, author of Cancer Free For Life

Press Release Body = The French psychiatrist Patrick Lemoine was quoted in theNew
Scientist as having made the astonishing admission that something like 35-40 per
cent of all official prescriptions given patients are 'impure' placebos. By that he
means a sugar pill that has no active ingredient to effect any cure.

He was saying more than 1/3 of all prescriptions are dummy pills and if they work at
all, it's because of the power of the mind.

The placebo effect has shown that beliefs are powerful, even when the belief is
false. The placebo is a form of intention - an instance of intention trickery. When
a doctor gives a patient a placebo, or sugar pill, he or she is counting on the
patient's belief that the drug will work.

It is well documented that belief in a placebo will create the same physiological
effects as that of an active agent. Lemoine says that the placebo effect 'depends
on the relationship between the patient and the doctor-the belief on the part of
the patient that what the doctor has given him will work.

In a study involving 46,000 heart patients, half of whom were taking a placebo, the
researchers made the astonishing discovery that patients taking a placebo fared as
well as those on the heart drug. The patient's belief in the doctor's 'power' had
mostly to do with his getting better. What he actually took-whether real drug or
placebo-made absolutely no difference.

The only factor determining survival seemed to be belief that the therapy will work
and a willingness to follow it religiously.

Those who stuck to doctor's orders to take their drug three times a day fared
equally well whether they were taking a drug or just a sugar pill. Patients who
tended not to survive were those who had been lax with their regimen, regardless of
whether they had been given a placebo or an actual drug.

In another dramatic instance, at Methodist Hospital in Houston, Dr Bruce Moseley, a
specialist in orthopaedics, recruited 150 patients with severe osteoarthritis of the
knee and divided them into three groups.

Two-thirds were either given arthroscopic lavage (which washes out degenerative
tissue and debris with the aid of a little viewing tube). The third group were given
a sham operation: The patients were surgically prepared, placed under anaesthesia
and wheeled into the operating room. Incisions were made in their knees, but no
procedure carried out.

Over the next two years, during which time none of the patients knew who had
received the real operations and who had received the placebo treatment, all three
groups reported moderate improvements in pain and function. In fact, the placebo
group reported better results than some who had received the actual operation (New
England Journal of Medicine, 2002).

The mental expectation of healing was enough to marshal the body's healing
mechanisms. The intention, brought about by the expectation of a successful
operation, produced the physical change.

Perhaps the most remarkable case concerned a woman called Annie, whose severe
depression landed her in a Lemoine's psychiatric hospital for more than a decade.
Most of her days were spent curled up in an armchair in the corner of her ward.
After Lemoine struck up a friendship with her, he persuaded her to take part in a
trial of a new antidepressant. She agreed and responded so well to the drug that
she was able to leave the hospital. Subsequently she found both an apartment and a
boyfriend. Her case in fact may have helped get the drug on the market.

Much later, when the ward was being redecorated, Lemoine found the antidepressant
pills Annie was supposed to have taken, buried deep in the folds of her armchair.
She'd hid them away, he realized, and when he checked he discovered she hadn't taken
even one.

Instances like this convince me that for the most part, we don't need drugs, just
our sincere belief that something is going to work.

Dr Magne has been researching the origins and causes of disease and cancer for the
past 25 years. Visit www.cancer-free-for-life.com to receive a FREE report on The 10
Ways to Cure Cancer Immediately. This article is available for reprint for your
website and newsletter, provided that you maintain its copyright integrity and
include the signature.

Web Site = http://

Contact Details = Dr Laurence Magne
Publisher, Author
Cancer Free For Life
Email : lmagne@yahoo.com
Website : http://cancer-free-for-life.com