Tag Archives: Immune System

PLACEBOS and the immune response

Could brain stimulation slow cancer?

The idea is that ‘the placebo effect’ activates the same ‘Reward Circuit’ in the brain as that “activated by food, sex and social interactions (as well as gambling and addictive drugs)”. This in turn stimulates the immune system and generates ‘anti-tumor immunity’ against pathogens.

This is Scientific American, dear readers, and the claim is based on the kind of clinical experimentation that placebos are now inspiring. Placebo Studies!

“It’s like doing immunotherapy without medication.”

At the moment it’s just been shown in mice, and the ‘data are preliminary’, but even if it turns out only partly to be shown in humans, the implications are profound.