Placebo

It’s a well-known fact that the key to a healthy life lies in a balanced diet and daily exercise. There are countless websites, television channels, and books dedicated to achieving one’s optimum health. Having a good exercise routine can extend one’s life for years and years, but the health benefits of exercise surpass just the physical body, it benefits the mind as well. Few people know that exercise isn’t just about the exterior. On one hand, looking and being fit fulfills a part of a…

Antidepressant Advertisements: A Dose of Misinformation The pharmaceutical industry is a multibillion dollar industry with huge budgets for marketing. In 2015, Pfizer, a leading pharmaceutical firm, disbursed $3.1 billion on direct-to-consumer prescription drugs advertisements (Statista). In 1997, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowed drug companies to advertise directly to consumers rather than to physicians only. An assortment of controversy has since ensued (Feng 90). In 2004,…

Huntington disease (HD) or HD chorea is progressive neurodegenerative autosomal dominant disease that is defined by the motor, behavioral, and cognitive symptoms that influence “about one in ten thousand people in the western hemispheres” (Novak et al. 234). HD chorea is often identified by the movement difficulties that it causes, and “In fact, when HD was first discovered it was called Huntington’s chorea, as a reference to the uncontrollable, dance-like movement that is common among people…

Voice and hydration Human communication happens predominantly through voice. The larynx is susceptible to injury and disease. Titze (1988) proposed that the energy required to drive small-amplitude oscillation of the vocal folds depends on tissue biomechanical properties. Vocal fold hydration is supposed to promote ideal biomechanical characteristics of vocal fold mucosa, increased efficiency of vocal fold oscillation, and enhance voice quality. There is evidence that, as the body tries to…

against simulated electroconvulsive therapy, in which patients are exposed to the equipment and believe falsely that they have received ECT. This is done to ensure that the beneficial effects of electroconvulsive therapy are genuine and not simply a placebo effect—seeing the equipment and believing that you are receiving shocks might be enough to reduce symptoms in the absence of any actual shocks. It has been found that 80% of all severely depressed patients responded well to ECT, compared with…

During the year of 2014 over 47,000 deaths occurred due to overdoses on opioids (CDC, 2016). Prescription drug abuse is a rising epidemic in the United States as there has been a 200% increase in the amount of deaths involving opioids from 2000-2014 (CDC, 2016). One of the main concerns for this increase is that these drugs are not being illegally purchased and distributed, but are being legally prescribed to patients by doctors. The question that many ask is, "How can prescription drug abuse be…

depression are St. John’s Wort and SAMe. St. John’s Wort is a crushed plant sold in capsule form. Studies done over the effectiveness of St. John’s Wort are mixed; however, it is generally thought that St. John’s Wort is slightly more effective than placebo in treating mild depression.The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health strongly suggests that St. John’s Wort should not be used in treating mental illness because it weakens other medications and can increase serotonin, a…

L-arginine may benefit men with erectile dysfunction. In a 1999 study published in the journal BJU International, for instance, 50 men with ED were given either 5 grams of L-arginine per day or a placebo. After six weeks, more men in the L-arginine group showed improvement compared to those taking the placebo. Congestive Heart Failure According to a 2000 study published in Clinical Cardiology, L-arginine may improve cardiac performance in people with congestive heart failure. L-arginine can also…

Stimulus To arrive to my question, one stimulus source which inspired me to research the effects of drugs on humans comes from the Looking Glass, where the use of psychedelic drugs is evident in Alice. For example, upon entering the looking glass, she describes her encounters “the pictures on the wall next the fire seemed to be all alive, and the very clock on the chimney-piece had got the face of a little old man, and it grinned at her”(Carroll, 2016). The other document which inspired me to…

My paper debates about the collation of music and one’s workout performance. Does music have a huge impact on one’s workout or is it just a placebo effect? Are our brains playing on us? I became very interested in this subject, because when a great song you love comes on, when a person is jogging, they well become more amped or pumped, and start to jog better or even start to run when the song comes on. The main theory I have is this, “Why is it that one who is running or lifting, they will stop…