[turingcompeteme]

> the rituals embedded in the doctor-patient encounter that he thinks are fundamental to the placebo effect

> “Medical care is a moral act,” he says, in which a suffering person puts his or her fate in the hands of a trusted healer.

I have a friend who is a naturopath, and this is basically what she believes her job to be. Almost more of a therapist at times, a friendly ear to confide in.

The average experience with doctors isn't always that pleasant. It feels clinical and rushed, and very non personal. They are concerned with symptoms, not the actual person in front of them. They don't really listen, as a therapist would. And it's not their job too.

Contrast that with an alternative healer. They will sit and talk and listen and empathize with you for an hour. For a person in pain, it might be the first time they have ever felt like someone actually understands and cares. It's not surprising that they feel better afterwards. I think that goes a long way to explain the popularity of fake medicine.

[srtjstjsj]

How does that explain the popularity of shelves full of fake pills at GNC and Walgreen's?

[gameswithgo]

I imagine those are popular because for many problems there are not yet any real solutions.

Got a cold? A muscle tear, connective tissue damage? weird back pain?

There are no definite solutions to those. And ever smart HN person who think they know the solution to that, only knows a thing that they believed worked for THEM and won't necessarily work for ME and may not even have worked for them, it just got better with time and they think it was their special cross fit routine because of chronological fallacy.