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Well, 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
granting his every wish.
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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 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 surprised by this
even in our times.
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An American military doctor used
exactly this during World War Two.
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At some point they ran out of
morphine at the front
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that the wounded soldiers
could take for their pain.
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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 had
hardly any pain.
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This completely confounded him.
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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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support 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.
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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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