More about the placebo effect

Mind/body medicine is still a very new and largely unproven science. But there are more and more examples of the power of the mind to heal the body.

A recent  study involving hotel maids published in the journal Psychological Science last year (February 2007, Vol 18, Issue 2) is quite fascinating.

The researchers began by measuring the weight, blood pressure, and body mass index, of a group of hotel maids. All the maids were all asked about their exercise habits. Most reported that they exercised little or not at all on a daily basis. The maids were then divided into two groups. One group was shown how the work they did daily as maids was, in fact, exercise and were even told how many calories each of their daily routine cleaning activities burned. The other group (the control group) was not given this exercise and calorie information. Both groupswere observed for 4 weeks, at which time their weights, blood pressures and body mass indexes were measured again and they were again asked about their exercise habits.  The study found that the maids that were told they were exercising actually lost weight and showed lower blood pressure than the control group.

This was a small study and by no means conclusive. But the results can’t be ignored. Apparently the only difference between the two groups was that one group believed that they were exercising and that belief was apparently enough to produce positive results.

If two people put on QRAY bracelets but have different beliefs and expectations, can a similar result be expected?