[AndrewMoffat]

> I'd imagine placebos are getting more effective due to more people having purely headspace/mindset (or even imaginative) illnesses/causes due to stress factors

Here's a list of medical conditions studied by placebo treatements: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo#List_of_medical_conditi... Many of them had significant positive results for the placebo.

You could argue that many of those ailments could be due to mental/stress issues, and that it makes sense that calming the mind and believing in a treatment would work, but for some of them (Parkinson's, Herpes, food allergy), it's pretty amazing at how individuals are affected. Maybe we're under-crediting the brain's ability to control the body.

[klenwell]

I'm reading Robert Sapolsky's Why Don't Zebras Get Ulcers right now (very interesting on subject of stress) and given what I've read, I would not be greatly shocked to learn that Parkinson's, herpes, or food allergies are affected by stress and the remediation of it.

It's impressive how integral stress hormones are to metabolism and disease. You wouldn't expect the psychogenic effects of a placebo to cure these diseases, but it makes sense that a placebo, or some factor tied to them that helps to lessen stress, could alleviate the intensity of outbreaks or symptoms.