Absolute: Podcast Recommendation. Akimbo
Don't Fear Placebos
What is a placebo?
A placebo is a sham substance or treatment which is designed to have no known therapeutic value.1
As a chiropractic student (a long time ago!), I learned very early on about placebos and the subsequent placebo effect. As a matter of fact we were exposed to similar research that Seth talks about in this episode regarding an intervention and a “sham” intervention essentially providing the same statistical outcomes. This is the placebo effect whereby the difference between the baseline and the end result of those who received the placebo can be quantified giving an “effect” of something happening although no real treatment was actually administered.
Being exposed to the placebo effect scared me, especially when considering that some of the treatment interventions researched against a placebo were the same things I would be doing in my professional career. It was frustrating and I seriously considered if I was wasting my time in Chiropractic school. I clearly didn’t truly understand a placebo or its effect!
This podcast episode by Seth Godin does a great job in explaining a placebo and instead of questioning ourselves, how we can use its effect to our advantage.
Enjoy! (Seth uses Acast for his podcast which does not embed in Substack, so click the link).
Oh my gosh, a world just opened!!! Spent the entire afternoon listening Seth’s podcasts...this is great, thank you for this awesome recommendation! Highly recommend back to listen “Hitsville” episode!!!
Thank you for the recommendation!