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Hmmm, who's that moaning? 
Oh, Fug has a headache.

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And his joints hurt, and his stomach too.

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Thank goodness Vera's there.

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She's taking care of him and
waiting on him hand and foot.

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And there are still a few of
Dr Vera's chocolate tablets left.

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Ah, I'm already feeling much better.

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But that can't be.
That was just a placebo.

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Placebo? What's that again?

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Who can explain it better than Dr. Mo?

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A placebo is a fake medicine.

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A true placebo doesn't contain
any kind of real medicine.

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It's usually just made up
of sugar and starch.

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So it shouldn't have any kind of effect.

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The latin word 'placebo' is translated as:

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'I shall please'

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which basically means 'I will help.'

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So placebos do work!

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Even the ancient Greeks knew about
the effects of placebos.

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Plato wrote over 2000 years ago

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that a certain medicinal herb
would only work

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if it was administered
together with a spell.

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But without the spell it would be useless.

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This remedy worked without any
active ingredient being inside it

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and that's known as the 'placebo effect.'

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Doctors are still being taken by surprise 
by this, even in modern times.

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An American military doctor used
exactly this trick during World War Two.

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At the front they eventually
ran out of morphine

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that the wounded soldiers
could take for their pain.

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So instead, the doctor secretly administered
table salt.

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The effect was exactly the same.

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Many of the soldiers experienced
hardly any pain.

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This completely confounded him.

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But now we know that

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a placebo works exactly like a painkiller
in sparking pain inhibitors in the brain.

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Substances in the body's defence system
are released to suppress the pain.

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So just seeing the doctor has an effect.

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The patient expects to be given help.

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Sometimes the pain recedes as soon as
the patient enters the doctor's surgery.

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The patient sees that they get better
every time they go to the doctor.

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The placebo effect is therefore
often the result of a learning experience.

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The doctor himself has
a large part to play.

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Through his empathy and care

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he can do a lot for the healing process.

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Just in the giving of genuine medicines

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there's a placebo effect at work.

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The expectation that medicine will help
and that doctors heal

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supports the healing process.

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It works best

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when a patient has
complete faith in their doctor.

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No problem for Vera and Fug,
as they are very fond of one another.

51
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Fug isn't really ill anyway.
He was just feeling a bit unwell.

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Now he's feeling much better

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and that's purely down to
Vera's loving care.

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Adelheids subtitles