What's a placebo effect? | Knowledge makes ah! | WDR

German B1 / B2

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

And his joints hurt, and his stomach too.

Thank goodness Vera's there.

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

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

Ah, I'm already feeling much better.

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

Placebo? What's that again?

Who can explain it better than Dr. Mo?

A placebo is a fake medicine.

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

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

So it shouldn't have any kind of effect.

The latin word 'placebo' is translated as:

'I shall please'

which basically means 'I will help.'

So placebos do work!

Even the ancient Greeks knew about
the effects of placebos.

Plato wrote over 2000 years ago

that a certain medicinal herb
would only work

if it was administered
together with a spell.

But without the spell it would be useless.

This remedy worked without any
active ingredient being inside it

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

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

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

At the front they eventually
ran out of morphine

that the wounded soldiers
could take for their pain.

So instead, the doctor secretly administered
table salt.

The effect was exactly the same.

Many of the soldiers experienced
hardly any pain.

This completely confounded him.

But now we know that

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

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

So just seeing the doctor has an effect.

The patient expects to be given help.

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

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

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

The doctor himself has
a large part to play.

Through his empathy and care

he can do a lot for the healing process.

Just in the giving of genuine medicines

there's a placebo effect at work.

The expectation that medicine will help
and that doctors heal

supports the healing process.

It works best

when a patient has
complete faith in their doctor.

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

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

Now he's feeling much better

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

Adelheids subtitles